UC-NRLF 


DIE 


i 


University  of  California. 

FROM    TI1K    LIBRARY    OF 

DR.     FRANCIS     LIEBLER, 

I'rotVs.-or  «if  History  ami  Law  in  Columbia  Coll-  .••urn,  Now  York. 


TUK   CIl-'T    OK 

MICHAEL     REESE, 

(V"  S(fu  Fi'anci.^ 

i  s  r  3  . 


WHITE    SLAVERY 


THE    BARBARY    STATES 


CHARLES    SUMNER. 

V   I 


ilutato  nomine,  de  te 

Fabula  uarratur. 

HOEACE. 


And  thinkest  thou  this,  O  man,  that  judgest  them  which  do  such 
things,  and  doest  the  same,  that  thou  shalt  escape  the  judgment  of 
God? 

EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS,  Chap.  ii.  v.  3, 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED  BY  JOHN  P.  JEWETT  AND  COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND,    OHIO: 

JEWETT,   PROCTOR,   AND   WORTHINGTON. 

LONDON:   LOW  AND  COMPANY. 

1853. 


HT 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congrew,  in  the  year  1863,  by 

JOHN  P.  JEWETT  AND   COMPANY, 
In  the  Clerk's  Ortiue  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


OKIGINAL    DESIGNS    BY    BILLINGS. 
ENGRAVED    BY   BAKER,   SMITH,   AND    ANDKt\r. 


STEREOTYPED  AT  THE 
BOSTON"     STEREOTYPE     KO 


GEO.  C.  RAND,  PRINTER,  CORNH1LL. 


HISTORY  has  been  sometimes  called  a  gallery, 
where,  in  living  forms,  are  preserved  the  scenes, 
the  incidents,  and  the  characters  of  the  past.  It 
may  also  be  called  the  world's  great  charnel  house, 
where  are  gathered  coffins,  dead  men's  bones,  and 
all  the  uncleanness  of  the  years  that  have  fled. 
As  we  walk  among  its  pictures,  radiant  with  the 
inspiration  of  virtue  and  of  freedom,  we  confess  a 


6  WHITE  SLAVERY 

-\ 

new  impulse  to  beneficent  exertion.  As  we  grope 
amidst  the  unsightly  shapes  that  have  been  left 
without  an  epitaph,  we  may  at  least  derive  a  fresh 
aversion  to  all  their  living  representatives. 

In  this  mighty  gallery,  amidst  a  heavenly  light, 
are  the  images  of  the  benefactors  of  mankind  — 
the  poets  who  have  sung  the  praise  of  virtue,  the 
historians  who  have  recorded  its  achievements,  and 
the  good  men  of  all  time,  who,  by  word  or  deed, 
have  striven  for  the  welfare  of  others.  Here  are 
depicted  those  scenes  where  the  divinity  of  man 
has  been  made  manifest  in  trial  and  danger. 
Here  also  are  those  grand  incidents  which  at- 
tended the  establishment  of  the  free  institutions 
of  the  world  ;  the  signing  of  Magna  Charta,  with 
its  priceless  privileges  of  freedom,  by  a  reluctant 
monarch  ;  and  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  the  annunciation  of  the  inalienable 
rights  of  man,  by  the  fathers  of  our  republic. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  ignominious  confusion, 
far  down  in  this  dark,  dreary  charnel  house  is 
tumbled  all  that  now  remains  of  the  tyrants,  the 
persecutors,  the  selfish  men,  under  whom  mankind 
have  groaned.  Here  also,  in  festering,  loathsome 
decay,  are  the  monstrous  institutions  or  customs, 
which  the  earth,  weary  of  their  infamy  and  injus- 
tice, has  refused  to  sustain  —  the  Helotism  of 
Sparta,  the  Serfdom  of  Christian  Europe,  the 
Ordeal  by  Battle,  and  Algerine  Slavery. 

From  this  charnel  house  let  me  to-night  draw 


IN  THE   BABBARY   STATES.  7 

forth  one  of  these.  It  may  not  be  without  profit 
to  dwell  on  the  origin,  the  history,  and  the  char- 
acter of  a  custom,  which,  after  being  for  a  long 
time  a  byword  and  a  hissing  among  the  nations, 
has  at  last  been  driven  from  the  world.  The 
easy,  instinctive,  positive  reprobation,  which  it 
will  receive  from  all,  must  necessarily  direct  our 
judgment  of  other  institutions,  yet  tolerated  in 
equal  defiance  of  justice  and  humanity.  I  propose 
to  consider  the  subject  of  White  Slavery  in  Algiers, 


or  perhaps  it  might  be  more  appropriately  called 
White  Slavery  in  the  Barbary  States.  As  Algiers 
was  its  chief  seat,  it  seems  to  have  acquired  a  cur- 
rent name  from  that  place.  This  I  shall  not  dis- 
turb ;  though  I  shall  speak  of  White  Slavery,  or 
the  Slavery  of  Christians,  throughout  the  Barbary 
States. 

If  this  subject  should  fail  in  interest,  it  cannot 
fail  in  novelty.     I  am  not  aware  of  any  previous 


8  WHITE   SLAVERY 

attempt  to  combine  its  scattered  materials  in  a 
connected  essay. 

The  territory  now  known  as  the  Barbary  States 
is  memorable  in  history.  Classical  inscriptions, 
broken  arches,  and  ancient  tombs  —  the  memo- 
rials of  various  ages  —  still  bear  instructive  wit- 
ness to  the  revolutions  which  it  has  encountered.1 
Early  Greek  legend  made  it  the  home  of  terror 
and  of  happiness.  Here  was  the  retreat  of  the 
Gorgon,  with  snaky  tresses,  turning  all  she  looked 
upon  into  stone  ;  and  here  also  the  garden  of  the 
Hesperides,  with  its  apples  of  gold.  It  was  the 
scene  of  adventure  and  mythology.  Here  Her- 
cules wrestled  with  Antaeus,  and  Atlas  sustained, 
with  weary  shoulders,  the  overarching  sky.  Phoe- 
nician fugitives  early  transported  the  spirit  of 
commerce  to  its  coasts  ;  and  Carthage,  which 
these  wanderers  here  planted,  became  the  mistress 
of  the  seas,  the  explorer  of  distant  regions,  the 
rival  and  the  victim  of  Rome.  The  energy  and 
subtlety  of  Jugurtha  here  baffled  for  a  while  the 
Roman  power,  till  at  last  the  whole  country,  from 
Egypt  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  underwent  the 
process  of  "  annexation  "  to  the  cormorant  repub- 
lic of  ancient  times.  A  thriving  population  and 
fertile  soil  rendered  it  an  immense  granary.  It 

1  The  classical  student  will  be  gratified  and  surprised  by  the  re- 
mains of  antiquity  described  by  Dr.  Shaw,  English  chaplain  at 
Algiers  in  the  reign  of  George  the  First,  in  his  Travels  and  Observa- 
tions relating  to  Several  Parts  of  Barbary  and  the  Levant,  published 
in  1738. 


IN   THE   BARBARY   STATES. 


9 


was  filled  with  famous  cities,  one  of  which  was  the 
refuge  and  the  grave  of  Cato,  fleeing  from  the 
usurpations  of  Csesar.  At  a  later  day,  Christianity 
was  here  preached  by  some  of  her  most  saintly 
bishops.  The  torrent  of  the  Yandals,  first  wast- 
ing Italy,  next  passed  over  this  territory ;  and 
the  arms  of  Belisarius  here  obtained  their  most 


signal  triumphs.  The  Saracens,  with  the  Koran 
and  the  sword,  potent  ministers  of  conversion, 
next  broke  from  Arabia,  as  the  messengers  of  a 
new  religion,  and,  pouring  along  these  shores, 
diffused  the  faith  and  doctrines  of  Mohammed. 
Their  empire  was  not  confined  even  by  these  ex- 
pansive limits  ;  but,  under  Musa,  entered  Spain, 
and  afterwards  at  Eoncesvalles,  in  "  dolorous 
rout,"  overthrew  the  embattled  chivalry  of  the 
Christian  world  led  by  Charlemagne. 

The  Saracenic  power  did  not  long  retain  its 
unity  or  importance  ;  and,  as  we  view  this  terri- 


10  WHITE   SLAVERY 

tory,  in  the  dawn  of  modern  history,  when  the 
countries  of  Europe  are  appearing  in  their  new 
nationalities,  we  discern  five  different  communi- 
ties or  states,  —  Morocco,  Algiers,  Tunis,  Tripoli, 
and  Barca,  —  the  latter  of  little  moment,  and  often 
included  in  Tripoli,  the  whole  constituting  what 
was  then,  and  is  still,  called  the  Barbary  States. 
This  name  has  sometimes  been  referred  to  the 
Berbers,  or  Berebbers,  constituting  a  part  of  the 
inhabitants ;  but  I  delight  to  follow  the  classic 
authority  of  Gibbon,  who  thinks l  that  the  term, 
first  applied  by  Greek  pride  to  all  strangers,  and 
finally  reserved  for  those  only  who  were  savage  or 
hostile,  has  justly  settled,  as  a  local  denomination, 
along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa.  The  Barbary 
States,  then,  bear  their  past  character  in  their  name. 
They  occupy  an  important  space  on  the  earth's 
surface  ;  on  the  north,  washed  by  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea,  furnishing  such  opportunities  of  prompt 
intercourse  with  Southern  Europe,  that  Cato  was 
able  to  exhibit  in  the  Roman  Senate  figs  freshly 
plucked  in  the  gardens  of  Carthage  ;  bounded  on 
the  east  by  Egypt,  on  the  west  by  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  and  on  the  south  by  the  vast,  indefinite, 
sandy,  flinty  wastes  of  Sahara,  separating  them 
from  Soudan  or  Negroland.  In  the  advantages 
of  position  they  surpass  every  other  part  of  Afri- 
ca,—  unless  we  except  Egypt, —  communicating 

1  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vol.  ix.  chap.  Ivi.  p.  465. 


IN  THE  BARBARY   STATES.  11 

easily  with  the  Christian  nations,  and  thus,  as  it 
were,  touching  the  very  hem  and  border  of  civ- 
ilization. 

Climate  adds  its  attractions  to  this  region,  which 
is  removed  from  the  cold  of  the  north  and  the 
burning  heats  of  the  tropics,  while  it  is  enriched 
with  oranges,  citrons,  olives,  figs,  pomegranates, 
and  luxuriant  flowers.  Its  position  and  character 
invite  a  singular  and  suggestive  comparison.  It  is 
placed  between  the  twenty-ninth  and  thirty-eighth 
degrees  of  north  latitude,  occupying  nearly  the  same 
parallels  with  the  Slave  States  of  our  Union.  It  ex- 
tends over  nearly  the  same  number  of  degrees  of 
longitude  with  our  Slave  States,  which  seem  now, 
alas  !  to  stretch  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Rio 
Grande.  It  is  supposed  to  embrace  about  700,000 
square  miles,  which  cannot  be  far  from  the  space 
comprehended  by  what  may  be  called  the  Barbary 
States  of  America.1  Nor  does  the  comparison  end 
here.  Algiers,  for  a  long  time  the  most  obnoxious 
place  in  the  Barbary  States  of  Africa,  the  chief 
seat  of  Christian  slavery,  and  once  branded  by  an 
indignant  chronicler  as  "  the  wall  of  the  barbarian 
world,"  is  situated  near  the  parallel  of  36°  30' 
north  latitude,  being  the  line  of  what  is  termed 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  marking  the  "  wall  "  of 
Christian  slavery,  in  our  country,  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. 

1  Jefferson,  without  recognizing  the  general  parallel,  alludes  to 
Virginia  as  fast  sinking  to  be  "  the  Barbary  of  the  Union."  —Writ- 
ings, vol.  iv.  p.  333. 


12  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Other  less  important  points  of  likeness  between 
the  two  territories  may  be  observed.  They  are 
each  washed,  to  the  same  extent,  by  ocean  and 
sea ;  with  this  difference,  that  the  two  regions  are 
thus  exposed  on  directly  opposite  coasts  —  the 
African  Barbary  being  bounded  in  this  way  on 
the  north  and  west,  and  our  American  Barbary 
on  the  south  and  east.  But  there  are  no  two 
spaces,  on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  of  equal  extent, 
(and  an  examination  of  the  map  will  verify  what  I 
am  about  to  state,)  which  present  so  many  dis- 
tinctive features  of  resemblance ;  whether  we  con- 
sider the  parallels  of  latitude  on  which  they  lie, 
the  nature  of  their  boundaries,  their  productions, 
their  climate,  or  the  "peculiar  domestic  institu- 
tion" which  has  sought  shelter  in  both. 

I  introduce  these  comparisons  in  order  to  bring 
home  to  your  minds,  as  near  as  possible,  the  pre- 
cise position  and  character  of  the  territory  which 
•was  the  seat  of  the  evil  I  am  about  to  describe. 
It  might  be  worthy  of  inquiry,  why  Christian 
slavery,  banished  at  last  from  Europe,  banished 
also  from  that  part  of  this  hemisphere  which  cor- 
responds in  latitude  to  Europe,  should  have  in- 
trenched itself,  in  both  hemispheres,  between  the 
same  parallels  of  latitude  ;  so  that  Virginia,  Car- 
olina, Mississippi,  and  Texas  should  be  the  Amer- 
ican complement  to  Morocco,  Algiers,  Tripoli,  and 
Tunis.  Perhaps  the  common  peculiarities  of  cli- 
mate, breeding  indolence,  lassitude,  and  selfishness, 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES. 


may  account  for  the  insensibility  to  the  claims  of 
justice  and  humanity  which  have  characterized 
both  regions. 

The  revolting  custom  of  White  Slavery  in  the 
Barbary  States  was,  for  many  years,  the  shame 
of  modern  civilization.  The  nations  of  Europe 
made  constant  efforts,  continued  through  succes- 
sive centuries,  to  procure  its  abolition,  and  also  to 
rescue  their  subjects  from  its  fearful  doom.  These 
may  be  traced  in  the  diversified  pages  of  history, 
and  in  the  authentic  memoirs  of  the  times.  Lit- 
erature also  affords  illustrations,  which  must  not 
be  neglected.  At  one  period,  the  French,  the 
Italians,  and  the  Spaniards  borrowed  the  plots  of 
their  stories  mostly  from  this  source.1  The  ad- 
ventures of  Rob- 
inson Crusoe 
make  our  child- 
hood familiar 
with  one  of  its 
forms.  Among 
his  early  trials, 
he  was  pirati- 
cally  captured 
by  a  rover  from 
Salle,  a  port  of  Morocco,  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
and  reduced  to  slavery.  "At  this  surprising 
change  of  circumstances/7  he  says,  "  from  a  mer- 

1  Sismondi's  Literature  of  the  South  of  Europe,  vol.  iii.  chap.  29, 
p.  492. 


14 


WHITE   SLAVERY 


chant  to  a  miserable  slave,  I  was  perfectly  over- 
whelmed ;  and  now  I  looked  back  upon  my  fa- 
ther's prophetic  discourse  to  me,  that  I  should  be 
miserable,  and  have  none  to  relieve  me,  which  I 
thought  was  so  effectually  brought  to  pass,  that  I 
could  not  be  worse."  And  Cervantes,  in  the 
story  of  Don  Quixote,  over  which  so  many  gener- 
ations have  shaken  with  laughter,  turns  aside 
from  its  genial  current  to  give  the  narrative  of  a 
Spanish  captive  who  had  escaped  from  Algiers. 
The  author  is  supposed  to  have  drawn  from  his 
own  experience  ;  for  during  five  years  and  a  half 
he  endured  the  horrors  of  Algerine  slavery,  from 
which  he  was  finally  liberated  by  a  ransom  of 
about  six  hundred  dollars.1  This  inconsiderable 
sum  of  money — less  than  the  price  of  an  intelli- 
gent African  slave  in  our  own  Southern  States — 

gave  to  freedom,  to 
his  country,  and  to 
mankind  the  author 
of  Don  Quixote. 

In  Cervantes  free- 
dom gained  a  cham- 
pion whose  efforts 
entitle  him  to  grate- 
ful mention,  on  this 
threshold  of  our  in- 
quiry. Taught  in 

1  The  exact  amount  is  left  uncertain  both  by  Smollet  and  Thomas 
Eoscoe  in  their  lives  of  Cervantes.    It  appears  that  it  was  five  hun- 


IN  THE   BARBABY   STATES.  15 

the  school  of  slavery,  he  knew  how  to  commiserate 
the  slave.  The  unhappy  condition  of  his  fellow- 
Christians  in  chains  was  ever  uppermost  in  his  mind. 
He  lost  no  opportunity  of  arousing  his  countrymen 
to  attempts  for  their  emancipation,  and  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  "peculiar  institution"  —  pardon  this 
returning  phrase!  —  under  which  they  groaned. 
He  became  in  Spain  what,  in  our  day  and  country, 
is  sometimes  called  an  "Anti-Slavery  Agitator" 
—  not  by  public  meetings  and  addresses,  but,  ac- 
cording to  the  genius  of  the  age,  mainly  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  theatre.  Not  from  the 
platform,  but  from  the  stage,  did  this  liberated 
slave  speak  to  the  world.  In  a  drama,  entitled 
El  Trato  de  Argel,  or  Life  in  Algiers,  —  which, 
though  not  composed  according  to  the  rules  of 
art,  yet  found  much  favor,  probably  from  its  sub- 
ject,—  he  pictured,  shortly  after  his  return  to 
Spain,  the  manifold  humiliations,  pains,  and  tor- 
ments of  slavery.  This  was  followed  by  two 
others  in  the  same  spirit  —  La  Gran  Sultana  Dona 
Cattdina  de  Oviedo,  The  Great  Sultana  the  Lady 
Cattalina  of  Oviedo  ;  and  Los  Banos  de  Argel, 
The  Galleys  of  Algiers.  The  last  act  of  the  lat- 
ter closes  with  the  statement,  calculated  to  enlist 
the  sympathies  of  an  audience,  that  this  play  "  is 
not  drawn  from  the  imagination,  but  was  born  far 

died  gold  crowns  of  Spain,  which,  according  to  his  Spanish  biogra- 
pher, Navarrete,  is  6770  reals,  (Vida  de  Cervantes,  p.  371.)  The  real 
is  supposed  to  be  less  than  ten  cents. 


16  WHITE  SLAVERY 

from  the  regions  of  fiction,  in  the  very  heart  of 
truth."  Not  content  with  this  appeal  through  the 
theatre.  Cervantes,  with  constant  zeal,  takes  up 
the  same  theme,  in  the  tale  of  the  Captive,  in  Don 
Quixote,  as  we  have  already  seen,  and  also  in  that 
of  El  Liberal  Jlmante,  The  Liberal  Lover,  and  in 
some  parts  of  La  Espanola  Inglesa,  The  English 
Spanishwoman.  All  these  may  be  regarded,  not 
merely  as  literary  labors,  but  as  charitable  en- 
deavors in  behalf  of  human  freedom. 

And  this  same  cause 
enlisted  also  a  prolific 
contemporary  genius, 
called  by  Cervantes 
"  that  prodigy,"  Lope 
de  Vega,  who  com- 
mended it  in  a  play 
entitled  Los  Cautivos 
deJlrgel,The  Captives 
°f  Algiers.  At  a  later 
day,  Calderon,  some- 
times exalted  as  the  Shakspeare  of  the  Spanish  stage, 
in  one  of  his  most  remarkable  dramas,  El  Principe 
Canstante,  The  Constant  Prince,  cast  a  poet's 
glance  at  Christian  slavery  in  Morocco.  To  these 
works  —  belonging  to  what  may  be  called  the  lit- 
erature of  Anti-Slavery,  and  shedding  upon  our 
subject  a  grateful  light  —  must  be  added  a  curious 
and  learned  volume,  in  Spanish,  on  the  Topogra- 
phy and  History  of  Algiers,  by  Haedo,  a  father 


IN  THE  BARBARY   STATES.  17 

of  the  Catholic  Church,  —  Topografia  y  Historia  de 
Jlrgd  por  Fra  Haedo, —  published  in  1612;  and 
containing  also  two  copious  Dialogues  —  one  on 
Captivity,  (de  la  Captiudad,)  and  the  other  on  the 
Martyrs  of  Algiers,  (de  los  Martyres  de  Jlrgel.) 
These  Dialogues,  besides  embodying  authentic 
sketches  of  the  sufferings  in  Algiers,  form  a  mine 
of  classical  and  patristic  learning  on  the  origin 
and  character  of  slavery,  with  arguments  and  prot- 
estations against  its  iniquity,  which  may  be  ex- 
plored with  profit,  even  in  our  day.  In  view  of 
this  gigantic  evil,  particularly  in  Algiers,  and  in 
the  hope  of  arousing  his  countrymen  to  the  gen- 
erous work  of  emancipation,  the  good  father  ex- 
claims,1 in  words  which  will  continue  to  thrill  the 
soul, — so  long  as  a  single  fetter  binds  a  single 
slave,  —  "  Where  is  charity  ?  Where  is  the  love 
of  God  ?  Where  is  the  zeal  for  his  glory  ? 
Where  is  desire  for  his  service?  Where  is  hu- 
man pity  and  the  compassion  of  man  for  man  ? 
Certainly  to  redeem  a  captive,  to  liberate  him 
from  wretched  slavery,  is  the  highest  work  of 
charity,  of  all  that  can  be  done  in  this  world." 
Not  long  after  the  dark  experience  of  Cervan- 
tes, another  person,  of  another  country  and  lan- 
guage, and  of  a  still  higher  character,  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul,  of  France,  underwent  the  same  cruel  lot. 
Happily  for  the  world,  he  escaped  from  slavery, 
to  commence  at  home  that  long  career  of  charity 

2         »  Pp.  HO,  ui. 


18  WHITE   SLAVERY 

—  nobler  than  any  glories  of  literature  —  signal- 
ized by  various  Christian  efforts,  against  duels, 
for  peace,  for  the  poor,  and  in  every  field  of  hu- 
manity— by  which  he  is  placed  among  the  great 
names fc  of  Christendom.  Princes  and  orators 
have  lavished  panegyrics  upon  this  fugitive  slave  ; 
and  the  Catholic  Church,  in  homage  to  his  extraor- 
dinary virtues,  has  introduced  him  into  the  com- 
pany of  saints.  Nor  is  he  the  only  illustrious 


Frenchman  who  has  felt  the  yoke  of  slavery. 
Almost  within  our  own  day,  Arago,  the  astrono- 
mer and  philosopher,  —  devoted  republican,  I  may 
add  also,  —  while  engaged,  early  in  life,  in  those 
scientific  labors,  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, which  made  the  beginning  of  his  fame,  fell 
a  prey  to  Algerine  slave  dealers.  What  science 
and  the  world  have  gained  by  his  emancipation  I 
need  not  say. 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES.  19 

Thus  Science,  Literature,  Freedom,  Philanthro- 
py, the  Catholic  Church,  each  and  all,  confess  a 
debt  to  the  liberated  Barbary  slave.  May  they, 
on  this  occasion,  as  beneficent  heralds,  commend 
the  story  of  his  wrongs,  his  struggles,  and  his 
triumphs ! 

These  preliminary  remarks  properly  prepare 
the  way  for  the  subject  to  which  I  have  invited 
your  attention.  In  presenting  it,  I  shall  naturally 
be  led  to  touch  upon  the  origin  of  slavery,  and  the 
principles  which  lie  at  its  foundation,  before  pro- 
ceeding to  exhibit  the  efforts  for  its  abolition,  and 
their  final  success  in  the  Barbary  States. 

I.  The  word  slave,  suggesting  now  so  much  of 
human  abasement,  has  an  origin  which  speaks  of 
human  grandeur.  Its  parent  term,  Slava,  signify- 
ing glory,  in  the  Slavonian  dialects,  where  it  first 
appears,  was  proudly  assumed  as  the  national 
designation  of  the  races  in  the  north-eastern  part 
of  the  European  continent,  who,  in  the  vicissitudes 
of  war,  were  afterwards  degraded  from  the  con- 
dition of  conquerors  to  that  of  servitude.  The 
Slavonian  bondman,  retaining  his  national  name, 
was  known  as  a  Slave,  and  this  term  —  passing 
from  a  race  to  a  class  —  was  afterwards  applied,  in 
the  languages  of  modern  Europe,  to  all  in  his  un- 
happy lot,  without  distinction  of  country  or  color.1 

1  Gibbon's  Roman  Empire,  vol.  x.  chap.  55,  p.  190. 


20 


WHITE   SLAVERY 


It  would  be  difficult  to  mention  any  word  which 
has  played  such  opposite  parts  in  history  —  now 
beneath  the  garb  of  servitude,  concealing  its  early 
robes  of  pride.  And  yet,  startling  as  it  may  seem, 
this  word  may  properly  be  received  in  its  prim- 
itive character,  in  our  own  day,  by  those  among 
us  who  consider  slavery  essential  to  democratic 
institutions,  and  therefore  a  part  of  the  true  glory 
of  the  country ! 


Slavery  was  universally  recognized  by  the  na- 
tions of  antiquity.  It  is  said  by  Pliny,  in  a  bold 
phrase,  that  the  Lacedaemonians  "invented  sla- 
very."1 If  this  were  so,  the  glory  of  Lycurgus 
and  Leonidas  would  not  compensate  for  such  a  blot 
upon  their  character.  It  is  true  that  they  recog- 
nized it,  and  gave  it  a  shape  of  peculiar  hardship. 
But  slavery  is  older  than  Sparta.  It  appears  in 
the  tents  of  Abraham  ;  for  the  three  hundred  and 
eighteen  servants  born  to  him  were  slaves.  It 
appears  in  the  story  of  Joseph,  who  was  sold  by 

1  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  vii.  c.  57. 


IN   THE   BARBARY   STATES.  21 

his  brothers  to  the  Midianites  for  twenty  pieces 
of  silver.1  It  appears  in  the  poetry  of  Homer, 
who  stamps  it  with  a  reprobation  which  can  never 
be  forgotten,  when  he  says,2 — 

Jove  fixed  it  certain,  that  whatever  day 
Makes  man  a  slave  takes  half  his  worth  away. 

In  later  days  it  prevailed  extensively  in  Greece, 
whose  haughty  people  deemed  themselves  justified 
in  enslaving  all  who  were  strangers  to  their  man- 
ners and  institutions.  "  The  Greek  has  the  right 
to  be  the  master  of  the  barbarian/7  was  the  senti- 
ment of  Euripides,  one  of  the  first  of  her  poets, 
which  was  echoed  by  Aristotle,  the  greatest  of  her 
intellects.3  And  even  Plato,  in  his  imaginary  re- 
public, the  Utopia  of  his  beautiful  genius,  sanctions 
slavery.  But,  notwithstanding  these  high  names, 
we  learn  from  Aristotle  himself  that  there  were 
persons  in  his  day  —  pestilent  abolitionists  of 
ancient  Athens — who  did  not  hesitate  to  main- 
tain that  liberty  was  the  great  law  of  nature, 
and  to  deny  any  difference  between  the  master 
and  the  slave  ;  declaring  openly  that  slavery  was 
founded  upon  violence,  and  not  upon  right,  and 

1  Genesis  xiv.  14 ;  ibid,  xxxvii.  28.     By  these  and  other  texts  of  the 
Scriptures,  slavery,  and  even  the  slave  trade,  have  been  vindicated. 
See  Brace's  Travels  in  Africa,  vol.  ii.  p.  319.     After  quoting  these 
texts,  the  complacent  traveller  says  he  "  cannot  think  that  pur- 
chasing slaves  is  either  cruel  or  unnatural." 

2  Odyssey,  book  xvii. 

3  Pol.  lib]  i.  c.l. 


22  WHITE   SLAVERY 

that  the  authority  of  the  master  was  unnatural  and 
unjust.1  "  God  sent  forth  all  persons  free  ;  nature 
has  made  no  man  a  slave,"  was  the  protest  of  one 
of  these  dissenting  Athenians  against  this  great 
wrong.  I  am  not  in  any  way  authorized  to  speak 
for  any  Anti-slavery  society,  even  if  this  were  a 
proper  occasion  ;  but  I  presume  that  this  ancient 
Greek  morality  substantially  embodies  the  princi- 
ples which  are  maintained  at  their  public  meet- 
ings—  so  far,  at  least,  as  they  relate  to  slavery. 

It  is  true,  most  true,  that  slavery  stands  on 
force,  and  not  on  right.  It  is  one  of  the  hideous 
results  of  war,  or  of  that  barbarism  in  which  sav- 
age war  plays  a  conspicuous  part.  To  the  victor, 
it  was  supposed,  belonged  the  lives  of  his  captives ; 
and,  by  consequence,  he  might  bind  them  in  per- 
petual servitude.  This  principle,  which  has  been 
the  foundation  of  slavery  in  all  ages,  is  adapted 
only  to  the  rudest  conditions  of  society,  and  is 
wholly  inconsistent  with  a  period  of  real  refine- 
ment, humanity,  and  justice.  It  is  sad  to  confess 
that  it  was  recognized  by  Greece  ;  but  the  civili- 
zation of  this  famed  land,  though  brilliant  to  the 

1  Pol.  lib.  i.  c.  3.  In  like  spirit  are  the  words  of  the  good  Las 
Casas,  when  pleading  before  Charles  the  Fifth  for  the  Indian  races 
of  America.  "  The  Christian  religion,"  he  said,  "  is  equal- in  its  op- 
eration, and  is  accommodated  to  every  nation  on  the  globe.  It  robs  no 
one  of  his  freedom,  violates  none  of  his  inherent  rights,  on  the  ground 
tliat  he  is  a  slave  by  nature,  as  pretended  ;  and  it  well  becomes  your 
Majesty  to  banish  so  monstrous  an  oppression  from  your  kingdoms 
in  the  beginning  of  your  reign,  that  the  Almighty  may  make  it  long 
and  glorious."  —  Prescott's  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p  379 


IN   THE   BARBABY    STATES. 


23 


external  view  as  the  immortal  sculptures  of  the 
Parthenon,  was,  like  that  stately  temple,  dark  and 
cheerless  within. 

Slavery  extended,  with  new  rigors,  under  the 
military  dominion  of  Rome.  The  spirit  of  free- 
dom which  animated  the  republic  was  of  that  self- 
ish and  intolerant  character  which  accumulated 
privileges  upon  the  Roman  citizen,  while  it  heeded 
little  the  rights  of  others.  But,  unlike  the  Greeks, 
the  Romans  admitted  in  theory  that  all  men  were 
originally  free  by  the  law  of  nature  ;  and  they 
ascribed  the  power  of  masters  over  slaves  not  to 
any  alleged  diversities  in  the  races  of  men,  but  to 
the  will  of  society.1  The  constant  triumphs  of 


their  arms  were  signalized  by  reducing  to  captiv- 
ity large  crowds  of  the  subjugated  people.  Paulus 
Emilius  returned  from  Macedonia  with  an  un- 
counted train  of  slaves,  composed  of  persons  in 
every  department  of  life  ;  and  at  the  camp  of 

1  Institute  i.  tit.  2. 


24  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Lucullus,  in  Pontus,  slaves  were  sold  for  four 
drachmae,  or  seventy-two  cents,  a  head.  Terence 
and  Phaedrus,  Roman  slaves,  have,  however, 
taught  us  that  genius  is  not  always  quenched, 
even  by  a  degrading  captivity  ;  while  the  writings 
of  Cato  the  Censor,  one  of  the  most  virtuous  slave- 
holders in  history,  show  the  hardening  influence 
of  a  system  which  treats  human  beings  as  cattle. 
"  Let  the  husbandman,"  says  Cato,  "  sell  his  old 
oxen,  his  sickly  cattle,  his  sickly  sheep,  his  wool, 
his  hides,  his  old  wagon,  his  old  implements,  his 
old  slave,  and  his  diseased  slave ;  and  if  any  thing 
else  remains,  let  him  sell  it.  He  ^nouM  be  a  seller, 
rather  than  a  buyer." l 

The  cruelty  and  inhumanity  which  flourished  in 
the  republic,  professing  freedom,  found  a  natural 
home  under  the  emperors  —  the  high  priests  of 
despotism.  Wealth  increased,  and  with  it  the 
multitude  of  slaves.  Some  masters  are  said  to 
have  owned  as  many  as  ten  thousand,  while  ex- 
travagant prices  were  often  paid,  according  to  the 
fancy  or  caprice  of  the  purchaser.  Martial  men- 
tions a  handsome  youth  who  cost  as  much  as  four 
hundred  sesteria,  or  sixteen  thousand  dollars.2 

It  is  easy  to  believe  that  slavery,  which  pre- 
vailed so  largely  in  Greece  and  Rome,  must  have 
existed  in  Africa.  Here,  indeed,  it  found  a  pecu- 
liar home.  If  we  trace  the  progress  of  this 

1  Re  Rustica,  §2.  2  Ep.  iii.  62. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES. 


25 


unfortunate  continent,  from  those  distant  days  of 
fable,  when  Jupiter 

did  not  disdain  to  grace 
The  feast  of  ^Ethiopia's  blameless  race,1 

the  merchandise  in  slaves  will  be  found  to  have 
contributed  to  the  abolition  of  two  hateful  cus- 
toms, once  universal  in  Africa  —  the  eating  of  cap- 
tives, and  their  sacrifice  to  idols.  Thus,  in  the 
march  of  civilization,  even  the  barbarism  of  slavery 
is  an  important  stage  of  Human  Progress.  It  is  a 
point  in  the  ascending  scale  from  cannibalism. 

In  the  early  periods  of  modern  Europe,  slavery 
was  a  general  custom, 
which  yielded  only 
gradually  to  the  hu- 
mane influences  of 
Christianity.  It  pre- 
vailed in  all  the  coun- 
tries of  which  we  have 


any  record.  Pair- 
haired  Saxon  slaves 
from  distant  England 
arrested  the  attention 
of  Pope  Gregory  in 
the  markets  of  Rome, 
and  were  by  him  hailed  as  angels.  A  law  of  so  vir- 
tuous a  king  as  Alfred  ranks  slaves  with  horses  and 


1  Iliad,  book  i. 


26  WHITE  SLAVERY 

oxen  ;  and  the  chronicles  of  William  of  Malmesbury 
show  that,  in  our  mother  country,  there  was  once  a 
cruel  slave  trade  in  whites.  As  we  listen  to  this 
story,  we  shall  be  grateful  again  to  that  civiliza- 
tion which  renders  such  outrages  more  and  more 
impossible.  "Directly  opposite/7  he  says,1  "  to 
the  Irish  coast,  there  is  a  seaport  called  Bristol, 
the  inhabitants  of  which  frequently  sent  into  Ire- 
land to  sell  those  people  whom  they  had  bought 
up  throughout  England.  They  exposed  to  sale 
maidens  in  a  state  of  pregnancy,  with  whom  they 
made  a  sort  of  mock  marriage.  There  you  might 
see  with  grief,  fastened  together  by  ropes,  whole 
rows  of  wretched  beings  of  both  sexes,  of  elegant 
forms,  and  in  the  very  bloom  of  youth,  —  a  sight 
sufficient  to  excite  pity  even  in  barbarians,  —  daily 
offered  for  sale  to  the  first  purchaser.  Accursed 
deed!  infamous  disgrace!  that  men,  acting  in  a 
manner  which  brutal  instinct  alone  would  have 
forbidden,  should  sell  into  slavery  their  relations, 
nay,  even  their  own  offspring.77  From  still  anoth- 
er chronicler2  we  learn  that,  when  Ireland,  in 
1172,  was  afflicted  with  public  calamities,  the 
people,  but  chiefly  the  clergy,  (prceripue  clericorum]) 
began  to  reproach  themselves,  as  well  they  might, 
believing  that  these  evils  were  brought  upon  their 

1  Book  ii.  chap.  20,  Life  of  St.  Wolston. 

2  Chronica  Hibernise,  or  the  Annals  of  Phil.  Flatesbury  in  the 
Cottonian  Library,  Domitian  A.  xviii.  10 ;  quoted  in  Stephens  on 
West  India  Slavery-,  vol.  i.  p.  6 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  27 

country  because,  contrary  to  the  right  of  Christian 
freedom,  they  had  bought  as  slaves  the  English 
boys  brought  to  them  by  the  merchants  ;  where- 
fore, it  is  said,  the  English  slaves  were  allowed  to 
depart  in  freedom. 

As  late  as  the  thirteenth  century,  the  custom 
prevailed  on  the  continent  of  Europe  to  treat  all 
captives,  taken  in  war,  as  slaves.  To  this,  poetry, 
as  well  as  history,  bears  its  testimony.  Old 
Michael  Drayton,  in  his  story  of  the  Battle  of 
Agincourt,  says  of  the  French,  — 

For  knots  of  cord  to  every  town  they  send, 
The  captived  English  that  they  caught  to  bind ; 
For  to  perpetual  slavery  they  intend 
Those  that  alive  they  on  the  field  should  find. 

And  Othello,  in  recounting  his  perils,  exposes  this 
custom,  when  he  speaks 

Of  being  taken  by  the  insolent  foe, 

And  sold  to  slavery  ;  of  my  redemption  thence. 

It  was  also  held  lawful  to  enslave  any  infidel  or 
person  who  did  not  receive  the  Christian  faith. 
The  early  common  law  of  England  doomed  here- 
tics to  the  stake ;  the  Catholic  Inquisition  did 
the  same ;  and  the  laws  of  Oleron,  the  mari- 
time code  of  the  middle  ages,  treated  them  "  as 
dogs,"  to  be  attacked  and  despoiled  by  all  true 
believers.  It  appears  that  Philip  le  Bel  of 
France,  the  son  of  St.  Louis,  in  1296,  present- 


28 


WHITE   SLAVERY 


ed  his  brother  Charles,  Count  of  Yalois,  with 
a  Jew,  and  that  he  paid  Pierre  de  Chambly 
three  hundred  livres  for  another  Jew ;  as  if  Jews 
were  at  the  time  chattels,  to  be  given  away,  or 
bought.1  And  the  statutes  of  Florence,  boastful 
of  freedom,  as  late  as  1415,  expressly  allowed 

republican  cit- 
izens to  hold 
slaves  who 
were  not  of 
the  Christian 
faith ;  Qui  nan 
sunt  Catholics 
fidei  et  Chris- 
tiarue?  And 
still  further, 
the  comedies 

of  Moliere,  UEtourdi,  Le  Sicilien,  L'Jlvare,  depicting 
Italian  usages  not  remote  from  his  own  day,  show 
that,  at  Naples  and  Messina,  even  Christian  wo- 
men continued  to  be  sold  as  slaves. 

This  hasty  sketch,  which  brings  us  down  to  the 
period  when  Algiers  became  a  terror  to  the 
Christian  nations,  renders  it  no  longer  astonish- 
ing that  the  barbarous  states  of  Barbary,  —  a  part 
of  Africa,  the  great  womb  of  slavery,  —  professing 

1  Encyclopedic  MHJiodique^  (Jurisprudence,)  Art.  Esclaraqe. 

2  Biot,  De  V Abolition  de  VEsclavage  Amim  en  Occident,  p.  440  ; 
a  work  crowned  with  a  gold  medal  by  the  Institute  of  France,  but 
which  will  he  read  with  some  disappointment. 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES.  29 

Mohammedanism,  which  not  only  recognizes  sla- 
very, but  expressly  ordains  "  chains  and  collars  "  to 
infidels,1  should  maintain  the  traffic  in  slaves,  par- 
ticularly in  Christians  who  denied  the  faith  of  the 
Prophet.  In  the  duty  of  constant  war  upon  unbe- 
lievers, and  in  the  assertion  of  a  right  to  the  ser- 
vices or  ransom  of  their  captives,  they  followed 
the  lessons  of  Christians  themselves. 

It  is  not  difficult,  then,  to  account  for  the  origin 
of  the  cruel  custom  now  under  consideration.  Its 
history  forms  our  next  topic. 

II.  The  Barbary  States,  after  the  decline  of 
the  Arabian  power,  were  enveloped  in  darkness, 
rendered  more  palpable  by  the  increasing  light 
among  the  Christian  nations.  As  we  behold  them 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  in  the  twilight  of  Euro- 
pean civilization,  they  appear  to  be  little  more 
than  scattered  bands  of  robbers  and  pirates, — 
"the  land  rats  and  water  rats  "  of  Shylock, — lead- 
ing the  lives  of  Ishmaelites.  Algiers  is  described 
by  an  early  writer  as  "  a  den  of  sturdy  thieves, 
formed  into  a  body,  by  which,  after  a  tumultuary 
sort,  they  govern ;  "  2  and  by  still  another  writer, 
contemporary  with  the  monstrosity  which  he  ex- 
poses, as  "  the  theatre  of  all  cruelty  and  sanctu- 
arie  of  iniquitie,  holding  captive,  in  miserable  ser- 

1  Koran,  chap.  76. 

2  Harleian  Miscellany,  vol.  v.   p.  522  —  A  Discourse  concerning 


30 


WHITE   SLAVERY 


vitude,  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  Chris- 
tians, almost  all  subjects  of  the  King  of  Spaine." 1 
Their  habit  of  enslaving  prisoners,  taken  in  war 
and  in  piratical  depredations,  at  last  aroused 
against  these  states  the  sacred  animosities  of 
Christendom.  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  after  the 
conquest  of  Granada,  and  while  the  boundless  dis- 
coveries of  Columbus,  giving  to  Castile  and  Ara- 


. 


gon  a  new  world,  still  occupied  his  mind,  found 
time  to  direct  an  expedition  into  Africa,  under 
the  military  command  of  that  great  ecclesiastic, 
Cardinal  Ximenes.  It  is  recorded  that  this  val- 
iant soldier  of  the  church,  on  effecting  the  con- 
quest of  Oran,  in  1509,  had  the  inexpressible 


1  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  vol.  ii.  p.  1565. 


IN   THE  BAEBAEY  STATES.  31 

satisfaction  of  liberating  upwards  of  three  hundred 
Christian  slaves.1 

The  progress  of  the  Spanish  arms  induced  the 
government  of  Algiers  to  invoke  assistance  from 
abroad.  At  this  time,  two  brothers,  Horuc  and 
Hayradin,  the  sons  of  a  potter  in  the  Island 
of  Lesbos,  had  become  famous  as  corsairs.  In 
an  age  when  the  sword  of  the  adventurer  often 
carved  a  higher  fortune  than  could  be  earned  by 
lawful  exertion,  they  were  dreaded  for  their  abili- 
ties, their  hardihood,  and  their  power.  To  them 
Algiers  turned  for  aid.  The  corsairs  left  the  sea 
to  sway  the  land  ;  or  rather,  with  amphibious  rob- 
bery, they  took  possession  of  Algiers  and  Tunis, 
while  they  continued  to  prey  upon  the  sea.  The 
name  of  Barbarossa,  by  which  they  are  known  to 
Christians,  is  terrible  in  modern  history.2 

With  pirate  ships  they  infested  the  seas,  and 
spread  their  ravages  along  the  coasts  of  Spain 
and  Italy,  until  Charles  the  Fifth  was  aroused  to 
undertake  their  overthrow.  The  various  strength 
of  his  broad  dominions  was  rallied  in  this  new 
crusade.  "  If  the  enthusiasm/7  says  Sismondi, 
"  which  armed  the  Christians  at  an  earlier  day,  was 
nearly  extinct,  another  sentiment,  more  rational 
and  legitimate,  now  united  the  vows  of  Europe. 

1  Prescott's  History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  vol.  iii.  p.  308 ; 
Purchas's  Pilgrims,  vol.  ii.  p.  813. 

2  Robertson's  Charles   the  Fifth,  book  v. ;  Haedo,  Historia  de 
Argel,  Epitome  de  los  Reyes,  de  Argel. 


32  WHITE  SLAVERY 

The  contest  was  no  longer  to  reconquer  the 
tomb  of  Christ,  but  to  defend  the  civilization,  the 
liberty,  the  lives,  of  Christians." *  A  stanch 
body  of  infantry  from  Germany,  the  veterans  of 
Spain  and  Italy,  the  flower  of  the  Castilian  nobil- 
ty,  the  knights  of  Malta,  with  a  fleet  of  near  five 
hundred  vessels,  contributed  by  Italy,  Portugal, 
and  even  distant  Holland,  under  the  command  of 
Andrew  Doria,  the  great  sea  officer  of  the  age, — 
the  whole  being  under  the  immediate  eye  of  the 
Emperor  himself,  with  the  countenance  and  bene- 
diction of  the  Pope,  and  composing  one  of  the 
most  complete  armaments  which  the  world  had 
then  seen,  —  were  directed  upon  Tunis.  Barba- 
rossa  opposed  them  bravely,  but  with  unequal 
forces.  While  slowly  yielding  to  attack  from 
without,  his  defeat  was  hastened  by  unexpected 
insurrection  within.  Confined  in  the  citadel  were 
many  Christian  slaves,  who,  asserting  the  rights 
of  freedom,  obtained  a  bloody  emancipation,  and 
turned  its  artillery  against  their  former  masters. 
The  place  yielded  to  the  Emperor,  whose  soldiers 
soon  surrendered  themselves  to  the  inhuman  ex- 
cesses of  war.  The  blood  of  thirty  thousand  in- 
nocent inhabitants  reddened  his  victory.  Amidst 
these  scenes  of  horror  there  was  but  one  spectacle 
that  afforded  him  any  satisfaction.  Ten  thousand 
Christian  slaves  met  him,  as  he  entered  the  town, 

1  Sisinondi,  Histoire  des  Fran$aist  torn.  xvii.  p.  102. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES. 


33 


and  falling  on  their  knees,  thanked  him  as  their 
deliverer.1 

In  the  treaty  of  peace  which  ensued,  it  was 
expressly  stipulated  on  the  part  of  Tunis,  that  all 
Christian  slaves,  of  whatever  nation,  should  be 
set  at  liberty  without  ransom,  and  that  no  subject 
of  the  Emperor  should  for  the  future  be  detained 
in  slavery.2 


The  apparent  generosity  of  this  undertaking, 
the  magnificence  with  which  it  was  conducted, 
and  the  success  with  which  it  was  crowned,  drew 
to  the  Emperor  the  homage  of  his  age  beyond 
any  other  event  of  his  reign.  Twenty  thousand 
slaves,  freed  by  treaty,  or  by  arms,  diffused 


1  Robertson's  Charles  the  Fifth,  hook  v. 

2  Ibid. 

3 


34 


WHITE  SLAVERY 


through  Europe  the  praise  of  his  name.  It  is 
probable  that,  in  this  expedition,  the  Emperor  was 
governed  by  motives  little  higher  than  those  of  vul- 
gar ambition  and  fame;  but  the  results  with  which 
it  was  crowned,  in  the  emancipation  of  so  many  of 
his  fellow-Christians  from  cruel  chains,  place  him, 
with  Cardinal  Ximenes,  among  the  earliest  Abo- 
litionists of  modern  times. 


This  was  in  1535.  Only  a  few  short  years 
before,  in  1517,  he  had  granted  to  a  Flemish  cour- 
tier the  exclusive  privilege  of  importing  four 
thousand  blacks  from  Africa  into  the  West  Indies. 
It  is  said  that  Charles  lived  long  enough  to  repent 
what  he  had  thus  inconsiderately  done.1  Certain 
it  is,  no  single  concession,  recorded  in  history,  of 
king  or  emperor,  has  produced  such  disastrous 

1  Clarkson's  History  of  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade,  vol.  i. 


IN   THE   BARBARY  STATES.  35 

far-reaching  consequences.  The  Fleming  sold  his 
privilege  to  a  company  of  Genoese  merchants, 
who  organized  a  systematic  traffic  in  slaves  be- 
tween Africa  and  America.  Thus,  while  levying 
a  mighty  force  to  check  the  piracies  of  Barbaros- 
sa,  and  to  procure  the  abolition  of  Christian  sla- 
very in  Tunis,  the  Emperor,  with  a  wretched  incon- 
sistency, laid  the  corner  stone  of  a  new  system  of 
slavery  in  America,  in  comparison  with  which  the 
enormity  that  he  sought  to  suppress  was  trivial 
and  fugitive. 

Elated  by  the  conquest  of  Tunis,  filled  also 
with  the  ambition  of  subduing  all  the  Barbary 
States,  and  of  extirpating  the  custom  of  Christian 
slavery,  the  Emperor,  in  1541,  directed  an  expedi- 
tion of  singular  grandeur  against  Algiers.  The 
Pope  again  joined  his  influence  to  the  martial 
array.  But  nature  proved  stronger  than  the  Pope 
and  Emperor.  Within  sight  of  Algiers,  a  sudden 
storm  shattered  his  proud  fleet,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  return  to  Spain,  discomfited,  bearing 
none  of  those  trophies  of  emancipation  by  which 
his  former  expedition  had  been  crowned.1 

The  power  of  the  Barbary  States  was  now  at 
its  height.  Their  corsairs  became  the  scourge  of 


1  Robertson's  Charles  the  Fifth,  book  vi. ;  Harleian  Miscellany, 
vol.  iv.  p.  504 ;  —  A  lamentable  and  piteous  Treatise,  very  necessarye 
for  euerye  Christen  manne  to  reade,  [or  the  Expedition  of  Charles 
the  Fifth,]  truly  and  dylygently  translated  out  of  Latyn  into 
Frenche,  and  out  of  Frenche  into  English,  1542. 


36  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Christendom,  while  their  much-dreaded  system  of 
slavery  assumed  a  front  of  new  terrors.  Their 
ravages  were  not  confined  to  the  Mediterranean. 
They  penetrated  the  ocean,  and  pressed  even  to 
the  Straits  of  Dover  and  St.  George's  Channel. 
Prom  the  chalky  cliffs  of  England,  and  even  from 
the  distant  western  coasts  of  Ireland,  unsuspect- 
ing inhabitants  were  swept  into  cruel  captivity.1 
The  English  government  was  aroused  to  efforts 
to  check  these  atrocities.  In  1620,  a  fleet  of 
eighteen  ships,  under  the  command  of  Sir  Rob- 
ert Mansel,  Vice  Admiral  of  England,  was  de- 
spatched against  Algiers.  It  returned  without 
being  able,  in  the  language  of  the  times,  "  to 
destroy  those  hellish  pirates,"  though  it  obtained 
the  liberation  of  forty  "  poor  captives,  which  they 
pretended  was  all  they  had  in  the  towne."  "  The 
efforts  of  the  English  fleet  were  aided,"  says 
Purchas,  "  by  a  Christian  captive,  which  did  swim 
from  the  towne  to  the  ships." 2  It  is  not  in  this 


1  Guizot's  History  of  the  English  Revolution,  vol.  i.  p.  69,  book 
ii. ;  Strafford's   Letters  and  Despatches,  vol.  i.  p.  68.    Sir  George 
Radcliffe,  the  friend  and  biographer  of  the  Earl,  boasts  that  the  latter 
"  secured  the  seas  from  piracies,  so  as  only  one  ship  was  lost  at  his 
first  coming,  [as  Lord  Lieutenant  to  Ireland,]  and  no  more  all  his 
time ;  whereof  every  year  before,  not  only  several  ships  and  goods 
were  lost  by  robbery  at  sea,  but  also  Turkish  men-of-war  usually 
landed,  and  took  prey  of  men  to  be  made  slaves"  —  Ibid,  vol  ii.  p.  434. 

2  "  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  pp,  885,  886 ;  Southey's  Naval  History  of 
England,  vol.  v.  pp.  60-63.     There  was  a  publication  especially  re- 
lating to  this  expedition,  entitled  Algiers  Voyage,  in  a  Journall  or 
briefe  Repertory  of  all  Occurrents  hapning  in  the  Fleet  of  Ships 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  37 

respect  only  that  this  expedition  recalls  that 
of  Charles  the  Fifth,  which  received  important 
assistance  from  rebel  slaves  ;  we  also  observe  a 
similar  deplorable  inconsistency  of  conduct  in  the 
government  which  directed  it.  It  was  in  the 
year  1620,  —  dear  to  all  the  descendants  of  the 
Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  Rock  as  an  epoch  of  free- 


dom,—  while  an  English  fleet  was  seeking  the 
emancipation  of  Englishmen  held  in  bondage  by 
Algiers,  that  African  slaves  were  first  introduced 
into  the  English  colonies  of  North  America  — 
thus  beginning  that  dreadful  system,  whose  long 
catalogue  of  humiliation  and  woes  is  not  yet 
complete.1 

The  expedition  against  Algiers  was  followed,  in 
1637,  by  another,  under  the  command  of  Captain 

sent  out  by  the  Kinge  his  most  excellent  Majestic,  as  well  against 
the  Pirates  of  Algiers  as  others.    London.    1621.    4to. 
1  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  187. 


WHITE   SLAVERY 


Rainsborough,  against  Sallee,  in  Morocco.  At 
his  approach,  the  Moors  desperately  transferred 
a  thousand  captives,  British  subjects,  to  Tunis 
and  Algiers.  "Some  Christians,  that  were 
slaves  ashore,  stole  away  out  of  the  towne,  and 
came  swimming  aboard." l  Intestine  feud  also 
aided  the  fleet,  and  the  cause  of  emancipation 

speedily  tri- 
umphed. Two 
hundred  and 
ninety  British 
captives  were 
surrendered  ; 
and  a  promise 
was  extorted 
from  the  gov- 
ernment of 
Sallee  to  re- 
deem the  wretched  captives,  sold  away  to  Tunis 
and  Algiers.  An  ambassador  from  the  King  of 
Morocco  shortly  afterwards  visited  England,  and, 
on  his  way  through  the  streets  of  London,  to  his 
audience  at  court,  was  attended  "  by  four  Barbary 
horses  led  along  in  rich  caparisons,  and  richer 
saddles,  with  bridles  set  with  stones ;  also  some 
hawks ;  many  of  the  captives  whom  he  brought  over 
going  along  afoot  clad  in  white."  2 


1  Osborne's  Voyages  —  Journal  of  the  Sallee  Fleet,  vol.  ii.  p.  493. 
See  also  Mrs.  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  chap.  4,  p.  219. 
9  Strafford's  Letter  and  Despatches,  vol.  ii.  pp.  86, 116, 129. 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES.  39 

The  importance  attached  to  this  achievement 
may  be  inferred  from  the  singular  joy  with  which 
it  was  hailed  in  England.  Though  on  a  limited 
scale,  it  had  been  a  war  of  liberation.  The  poet, 
the  ecclesiastic,  and  the  statesman  now  joined  in 
congratulations  on  its  results.  It  inspired  the 
muse  of  Waller  to  a  poem  called  The  Taking  of 
Sallee,  in  which  the  submission  of  the  slaveholding 
enemy  is  thus  described  :  —  * 

Hither  he  sends  the  chief  among  his  peers, 
Who  in  his  bark  proportioned  presents  bears, 
To  the  renowned  for  piety  and  force 
Poor  captives  manumised,  and  matchless  horse. 

It  satisfied  Laud,  and  filled  with  exultation  the 
dark  mind  of  Strafford.  "Sallee,  the  town,  is 
taken/7  said  the  Archbishop  in  a  letter  to  the 
latter,  then  in  Ireland,  "  and  all  the  captives  at 
Sallee  and  Morocco  delivered ;  as  many,  our  mer- 
chants say,  as,  according  to  the  price  of  the  markets, 
come  to  ten  thousand  pounds,  at  least." 1  Strafford 
saw  in  the  popularity  of  this  triumph  a  fresh 
opportunity  to  commend  the  tyrannical  designs  of 
his  master,  Charles  the  First.  "This  action  of 
Sallee,"  he  wrote  in  reply  to  the  Archbishop,  "  I 
assure  you  is  full  of  honor,  and  should,  methinks, 
help  much  towards  the  ready  cheerful  payment  of  the 
shipping  moneys."  2 

1  Stafford's  Letters  and  Despatches,  vol.  ii.  p.  131. 

2  Ibid.  p.  138. 


40  WHITE  SLAVERY 

The  coasts  of  England  were  now  protected  ; 
but  her  subjects  at  sea  continued  the  prey  of 
Algerine  corsairs,  who,  according  to  the  historian 
Carte,1  now  "  carried  their  English  captives  to 
France,  drove  them  in  chains  overland  to  Marseilles, 
to  ship  them  thence  with  greater  safety  for  slaves  to 
Algiers"  The  increasing  troubles,  which  dis- 
tracted and 
finally  cut 
short  the  reign 
of  Charles  the 
First,  could 
not  divert  at- 
tention from 
the  sorrows 
of  English- 
men, victims 
to  Mohamme- 
dan slave  drivers.  At  the  height  of  the  struggles 
between  the  King  and  Parliament,  an  earnest 
voice  was  raised  in  behalf  of  these  fellow- Chris- 
tians in  bonds.2  Waller,  who  was  orator  as 
well  as  poet,  exclaimed  in  Parliament,  "  By  the 
many  petitions  which  we  receive  from  the  wives 
of  those  miserable  captives  at  Algiers,  (being 
between  four  and  five  thousand  of  our  country- 
men,) it  does  too  evidently  appear,  that  to  make 
us  slaves  at  home  is  not  the  way  to  keep  us  from 


1  Carte's  History  of  England,  vol.  iv.  book  xxii.  p.  231. 

2  Waller's  Works,  p.  271. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  41 

being  made  slaves  abroad."  Publications  plead- 
ing their  cause,  bearing  date  in  1640,  1642,  and 
1647,  are  yet  extant.1  The  overthrow  of  an 
oppression  so  justly  odious  formed  a  worthy 
object  for  the  imperial  energies  of  Cromwell ;  and 
in  1655,  —  when,  amidst  the  amazement  of  Eu- 
rope, the  English  sovereignty  had  already  settled 
upon  his  Atlantean  shoulders, — he  directed  into 
the  Mediterranean  a  navy  of  thirty  ships,  under 
the  command  of  Admiral  Blake.  This  was  the 
most  powerful  English  force  which  had  sailed 
into  that  sea  since  the  Crusades.2  Its  success  was 
complete.  "  General  Blak,"  said  one  of  the 
foreign  agents  of  government,  "  has  ratifyed  the 
articles  of  peace  at  Argier,  and  included  therein 
Scotch,  Irish,  Jarnsey,  and  Garnsey-men,  and  all 


1  Compassion  towards  Captives,  urged  in  Three  Sermons,  on  Heb. 
xiii.  3,  by  Charles  Fitz-Geoffrey,  1642.    Libertas ;  or  Relief  to  the 
English  Captives  in   Algiers,  by  Henry  Robinson,  London,  1647. 
Letters  relating  to  the  Redemption  of  the  Captive  in  Algiers,  at  Tu- 
nis, by  Edward  Cason  Laud,  1647.    A  Relation  of  Seven  Years' 
Slavery  under  the  Turks  of  Algiers,  suffered  by  an  English  Captive 
Merchant,  with  a  Description  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Miserable 
Captives  under  that  Mercilest  Tyranny,  by  Francis  Knight,  London, 
1640.    The  last  publication  is  preserved  in  the  Collection  of  Voyages 
and  Travels  by  Osborne,  vol.  ii.  pp.  465-489. 

2  Hume  says,  (vol.  vii.  p.  529,  chap.  Ixi.,)  "  No  English  fleet,  ex- 
cept during  the  Crusades,  had  ever  before  sailed  in  those  seas"    He 
forgot,  or  was  not  aware  of  the  expedition  of  Sir  John  Mansel  al- 
ready mentioned,  (ante,  p.  224,)  which  was  elaborately  debated  in  the 
Privy  Council  as  early  as  1617,  three  years  before  it  was  finally  un- 
dertaken, and  which  was  the  subject  of  a  special  work.    See  South- 
ey's  Naval  History  of  England,  vol.  v.  pp.  149-157. 


42  WHITE  SLAVERY 

others  the  Protector's  subjects.  He  has  lykewys 
redeemed  from  thence  al  such  as  wer  captives 
ther.  Several  Dutch  captives  swam  aboard  the  fleet, 
and  so  escape  theyr  captivity." l  Tunis,  as  well  as 
Algiers,  was  humbled ;  all  British  captives  were 
set  at  liberty ;  and  the  Protector,  in  his  remarka- 
ble speech  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  in  the 
next  year,  announced  peace  with  the  "  profane " 
nations  in  that  region.2 

To  my  mind  no  single  circumstance  gives  a 
higher  impression  of  the  vigilance  with  which  the 
Protector  guarded  his  subjects  than  this  effort,  to 
which  Waller,  with  the  "  smooth  "  line  for  which 
he  is  memorable,  aptly  alludes,  as 

falling  dreadful  news 
To  all  that  piracy  and  rapine  use. 

His  vigorous  sway  was  followed  by  the  effeminate 
tyranny  of  Charles  the  Second,  whose  restoration 
was  inaugurated  by  an  unsuccessful  expedition 
against  Algiers  under  Lord  Sandwich.  This  was 
soon  followed  by  another,  with  a  more  favorable 
result,  under  Admiral  Lawson.3  By  a  treaty 
bearing  date  May  3d,  1662,  the  piratical  govern- 
ment expressly  stipulated,  "  that  all  subjects  of  the 


1  Thurloe's  State  Papers,  vol.  iii.  p.  527. 

2  Carlyle's  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Cromwell,  voL  ii.  p.  235,  part 
ix.  speech  v. 

3  Rapin's  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  pp.  858,864. 


IN  THE  BARBARY   STATES.  43 

King  of  Great  Britain,  now  slaves  in  Algiers,  or 
any  of  the  territories  thereof,  be  set  at  liberty, 
and  released,  upon  paying  the  price  they  were 
first  sold  for  in  the  market  ;  and  for  the  time  to 
come  no  subjects  of  his  Majesty  shall  be  bought  or 
sold,  or  made  slaves  of,  in  Algiers  or  its  territo- 
ries."1 Other  expeditions  ensued,  and  other 
treaties  in  1664,  1672,  1682,  and  1686  — showing, 
by  their  constant  recurrence  and  iteration,  the 
little  impression  produced  upon  those  barbarians.2 
Insensible  to  justice  and  freedom,  they  naturally 
held  in  slight  regard  the  obligations  of  fidelity  to 
any  stipulations  in  restraint  of  robbery  and  slave- 
holding. 

During  a  long  succession  of  years,  complaints 
of  the  sufferings  of  English  captives  continued  to 
be  made.  An  earnest  spirit,  in  1748,  found  ex- 
pression in  these  words  :  — 

O,  how  can  Britain's  sons  regardless  hear 
The  prayers,  sighs,  groans  (immortal  infamy  !) 
Of  fellow-Britons,  with  oppression  sunk, 
In  bitterness  of  soul  demanding  aid, 
Calling  on  Britain,  their  dear  native  land, 
The  land  of  liberty ! 3 

But  during  all  this  time,  the  slavery  of  blacks, 
transported  to  the  colonies  under  the  British  flag, 
still  continued. 


1  Eecueil  des  Traitez  de  Paix,  torn.  iv.  p.  43. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  307,476,  703,756. 

3  The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  xviii.  p.  531. 


44  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Meanwhile,  France  had  plied  Algiers  with  em- 
bassies and  bombardments.  In  1635  three  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  Frenchmen  were  -captives 
there.  Monsieur  de  Sampson  was  despatched  on 
an  unsuccessful  mission,  to  procure  their  libera- 
tion. They  were  offered  to  him  "for  the  price 
they  were  sold  for  in  the  market ; "  but  this  he 
refused  to  pay.1  Next  came,  in  1637,  Monsieur  de 
Mantel,  who  was  called  "  that  noble  captain,  and 
glory  of  the  French  nation,"  "  with  fifteen  of  his 
king's  ships,  and  a  commission  to  enfranchise  the 
French  slaves."  But  he  also  returned,  leaving  his 
countrymen  still  in  captivity.2  Treaties  followed 
at  a  later  day,  which  were  hastily  concluded,  and 
abruptly  broken  ;  till  at  last  Louis  the  Fourteenth 
did  for  France  what  Cromwell  had  done  for  Eng- 
land. In  1684,  Algiers,  being  twice  bombarded  3 
by  his  command,  sent  deputies  to  sue  for  peace, 


1  Osborne's  Voyages,  vol.  ii.  p.  468;  Relation  of  Seven  Years' 
Slavery  in  Algiers. 

»  Ibid.  p.  470. 

3  In  the  melancholy  history  of  war,  this  is  remarked  as  tne  earli- 
est instance  of  the  bombardment  of  a  town.  Sismondi,  who  never 
fails  to  regard  the  past  in  the  light  of  humanity,  says,  that  "  Louis 
the  Fourteenth  was  the  first  to  put  in  practice  the  atrocious  method, 
newly  invented,  of  bombarding  towns, — of  burning  them,  not  to 
take  them,  but  to  destroy  them, — of  attacking,  not  fortifications, 
but  private  houses,  —  not  soldiers,  but  peaceable  inhabitants,  women 
and  children,  and  of  confounding  thousands  of  private  crimes,  each 
one  of  which  would  cause  horror,  in  one  great  public  crime,  one  great 
disaster,  which  he  regarded  only  as  one  of  the  catastrophes  of  war." 
Sismondi,  Histoire  des  Fran^ais,  torn.  xxv.  p.  452.  How  much  of 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  45 

and  to  surrender  all  her  Christian  slaves.  Tunis 
and  Tripoli  made  the  same  submission.  Voltaire, 
with  his  accustomed  point,  declares  that,  by  this 
transaction,  the  French  became  respected  on  the 
coast  of  Africa,  where  they  had  before  been 
known  only  as  slaves.1 

An  incident  is  mentioned  by  the  historian, 
which  unhappily  shows  how  little  the  French  at 
that  time,  even  while  engaged  in  securing  the 
emancipation  of  their  own  countrymen,  had  at 
heart  the  cause  of 
general  freedom.  As 
an  officer  of  the  tri- 
umphant fleet  re- 
ceived the  Christian 
slaves  who  were 
brought  to  him  and 
liberated,  he  observed 
among  them  many 
English,  who,  in  the 
empty  pride  of  nationality,  maintained  that  they 
were  set  at  liberty  out  of  regard  to  the  King  of 
England.  The  Frenchman  at  once  summoned  the 
Algerines,  and,  returning  the  foolish  captives  into 
their  hands,  said,  "  These  people  pretend  that  they 
have  been  delivered  in  the  name  of  their  monarch ; 


this  is  justly  applicable  to  the  recent  murder  of  women  and  chil- 
dren by  the  forces  of  the  United  States  at  Vera  Cruz  !     Algiers  was 
bombarded  in  the  cause  of  freedom  ;  Yera  Cruz  to  extend  slavery  ! 
1  Sttcle  de  Louis  XIV.  chap.  14. 


46  WHITE  SLAVERY 

mine  does  not  offer  them  his  protection.  I  return 
them  to  you.  It  is  for  you  to  show  what  you  owe 
to  the  King  of  England."  The  Englishmen  were 
again  hurried  to  prolonged  slavery.  The  power 
of  Charles  the  Second  was  impotent  in  their  be- 
half—  as  was  the  sense  of  justice  and  humanity  in 
the  French  officer  or  in  the  Algerine  govern- 
ment. 

Time  would  fail,  even  if  materials  were  at  hand, 
to  develop  the  course  of  other  efforts  by  France 
against  the  Barbary  States.  Nor  can  I  dwell 
upon  the  determined  conduct  of  Holland,  one  of 
whose  greatest  naval  commanders,  Admiral  de 
Ruyter,  in  1661,  enforced  at  Algiers  the  emanci- 
pation of  several  hundred  Christian  slaves.1  The 
inconsistency,  which  we  have  so  often  remarked, 
occurs  also  in  the  conduct  of  France  and  Holland. 
Both  these  countries,  while  using  their  best  en- 
deavors for  the  freedom  of  their  white  people, 
were  cruelly  engaged  in  selling  blacks  into  distant 
American  slavery ;  as  if  every  word  of  reproba- 
tion, which  they  fastened  upon  the  piratical,  slave- 
holding  Algerines,  did  not  return  in  eternal  judg- 
ment against  themselves. 

Thus  far  I  have  chiefly  followed  the  history  of 
military  expeditions.  War  has  been  our  melan- 
choly burden.  But  peaceful  measures  were  also 


1  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  xviii.  p.  441. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  47 

employed  to  procure  the  redemption  of  slaves  ;  and 
money  sometimes  accomplished  what  was  vainly 
attempted  by  the  sword.  In  furtherance  of  this 
object,  missions  were  often  sent  by  the  European 
governments.  These  sometimes  had  a  formal 
diplomatic  organization ;  sometimes  they  consist- 
ed of  fathers  of  the  church,  who  held  it  a  sacred 
office,  to  which  they  were  especially  called,  to 


open  the  prison  doors,  and  let  the  captives  go 
free.1    It  was  through  the  intervention  of  the  su- 

1  To  the  relations  of  these  missions  we  are  indebted  for  works  of 
interest  on  the  Barbary  States,  some  of  which  I  am  able  to  mention. 
Busnot,  Histoire  du  Rtyne  de  Mouley  Ishmael,  a  Rouen,  1714.  This 
is  by  a  father  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  Jean  de  la  Faye,  Relation,  en 
Forme  de  Journal,  du  Voyage  pour  la  Redemption  des  Captifs,  a  Paris, 
1725.  Voyage  to  Barbary  for  the  Redemption  of  Captives  in  1720, 
by  the  Mathurin-  Trinitarian  Fathers,  London,  1735.  The  last  is  a 
translation  from  the  French.  Braithwaite 's  History  of  the  Revolu- 
tions of  the  Empire  of  Morocco,  London,  1729.  This  contains  a 
journal  of  the  mission  of  John  Russel,  Esq.,  from  the  English  gov- 
ernment to  Morocco,  to  obtain  the  liberation  of  slaves.  The  expe- 
dition was  thoroughly  equipped.  "  The  Moors,"  says  the  author, 


48  WHITE  SLAVERY 

periors  of  the  Order  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  who 
were  despatched  to  Algiers  by  Philip  the  Second 
of  Spain,  that  Cervantes  obtained  his  freedom  by 
ransom,  in  1579.1  Expeditions  of  commerce  often 
served  to  promote  similar  designs  of  charity  ;  and 
the  English  government,  forgetting  or  distrusting 
all  their  sleeping  thunder,  sometimes  condescend- 
ed to  barter  articles  of  merchandise  for  the  liber- 
ty of  their  subjects.2 

Private  efforts  often  secured  the  freedom  of 
slaves.  Friends  at  home  naturally  exerted  them- 
selves in  their  behalf;  and  many  families  were 
straitened  by  generous  contributions  to  this  sa- 
cred purpose.  The  widowed  mother  of  Cervantes 
sacrificed  all  the  pittance  that  remained  to  her, 
including  the  dowry  of  her  daughters,  to  aid  in  the 
emancipation  of  her  son.  An  Englishman,  of 
whose  doleful  captivity  there  is  a  record  in  the 
memoirs  of  his  son,  obtained  redemption  through 
the  .earnest  efforts  of  his  wife  at  home.  "She 

%<  find  plenty  of  every  thing  but  drink,  but  for  that  the  English  gen- 
erally take  care  of  themselves  ;  for,  besides  chairs,  tables,  knives, 
forks,  plates,  table  linen,  &c.,  we  had  two  or  three  mules,  loaded 
with  wine,  brandy,  sugar,  and  utensils  for  punch."  —  P.  82. 

1  Roscoe's  Life  of  Cervantes,  p.  43. 

2  "  The  following  goods,  designed  as  a  present  from  his  Majesty 
to  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  to  redeem  near  one  hundred  English  captives 
lately  taken,  were  entered  at  the  custom  house,  viz. :  20  pieces  of 
broadcloth,  2  pieces  of  brocade,  2  pieces  of  silver  tabby,  1  piece  of 
green  damask,  8  pieces  of  Holland,  16  pieces  of  cambric,  a  gold  re- 
peating watch,  4  silver  do.,  20  pounds  of  tea,  300  of  loaf  sugar,  5 
fuzees,  5  pair  of  pistols,  an  escrutoire,  2  clocks,  and  a  box  of  toys."     , 
v-  Get*.  3%.,  iv.  p.  104,  (1734.) 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES.  49 

resolved/7  says  the  story,  "  to  use  all  the  means  that 
lay  in  her  power  for  his  freedom,  though  she  left 
nothing  for  herself  and  children  to  subsist  upon. 
She  was  forced  to  put  to  sale,  as  she  did,  some 
plate,  gold  rings  and  bracelets,  and  some  part  of 
her  household  goods  to  make  up  his  ransom, 
which  came  to  about  .£150  sterling."1  In  1642, 
four  French  brothers  were  ransomed  at  the  price  of 
six  thousand  dollars.  At  this  same  period,  the  sum 
exacted  for  the  poorest  Spaniards  was  "  a  thous- 
and shillings  ; 77  while  Genoese,  "  if  under  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  were  freed  for  a  hundred  pounds 
sterling.77  2  These  charitable  endeavors  were 
aided  by  the  cooperation  of  benevolent  persons. 
George  Fox  interceded  in  behalf  of  several  Qua- 
kers, slaves  at  Algiers,  writing  "a  book  to  the 
Grand  Sultan  and  the  King  at  Algiers,  wherein  he 
laid  before  them  their  indecent  behavior  and  un- 
reasonable dealings,  showing  them  from  their  Alco- 
ran that  this  displeased  God,  and  that  Mohammed 
had  given  them  other  directions.77  Some  time 
elapsed  before  an  opportunity  was  found  to  re- 
deem them ;  "  but,  in  the  mean  while,  they  so  faith- 
fully served  their  masters,  that  they  were  suffered 
to  go  loose  through  the  town,  without  being 
chained  or  fettered.773 


1  MS.  Memoirs  of  Abraham  Brown. 

2  Osborne's  Voyages,  vol.  ii.  p.  489 ;  Relation  of  Seven  Years' 
Slavery  in  Algiers. 

3  Sewell's  History  of  the  Quakers,  p.  397. 

4 


50 


WHITE  SLAVERY 


As  early  as  the  thirteenth  century,  under  the 
sanction  of  Pope  Innocent  the  Third,  an  important 
association  was  organized  to  promote  the  emanci- 
pation of  Christian  slaves.  This  was  known  as 
the  Society  of  the  Fathers  of  Redemption.1  During 
many  successive  generations  its  blessed  labors 

were  continued,amidst 
the  praise  and  sympa- 
thy of  generous  men. 
History,  undertaking 
to  recount  its  origin, 
and  filled  with  a  grate- 
ful sense  of  its  ex- 
traordinary merits,  at- 
tributed it  to  the  sug- 
gestion of  an  angel  in 
the  sky,  clothed  in  re- 
splendent light,  hold- 
ing a  Christian  cap- 
tive in  his  right  hand, 
and  a  Moor  in  the  left.  The  pious  Spaniard, 
who  narrates  the  marvel,  earnestly  declares  that 
this  institution  of  beneficence  was  the  work,  not 
of  men,  but  of  the  great  God  alone ;  and  he 
dwells,  with  more  than  the  warmth  of  narrative, 
on  the  glory,  filling  the  lives  of  its  associates,  as 
surpassing  far  that  of  a  Roman  triumph  ;  for  they 
share  the  name  as  well  as  the  labors  of  the  Re- 


1  Biot,  De  F 'Abolition  de  VEsclavage  Ancien,  p.  437. 


IN  THE  BARB  ART  STATES.  51 

deemer  of  the  world,  to  whose  spirit  they  are  the 
heirs,  and  to  whose  works  they  are  the  successors. 
"  Lucullus,"  he  says,  "  affirmed  that  it  were  better 
to  liberate  a  single  Roman  from  the  hands  of  the 
enemy  than  to  gain  all  their  wealth ;  but  how 
much  greater  the  gain,  more  excellent  the  glory, 
and  more  than  human  is  it  to  redeem  a  captive ! 
For  whosoever  redeems  him  not  only  liberates 
him  from  one  death,  but  from  death  in  a  thousand 
ways,  and  those  ever  present,  and  also  from  a 
thousand  afflictions,  a  thousand  miseries,  a  thou- 
sand torments  and  fearful  travails,  more  cruel  than 
death  itself." i  The  genius  of  Cervantes  has  left 
a  record  of  his  gratitude  to  this  Anti-Slavery  So- 
ciety2—the  harbinger  of  others  whose  mission  is 
not  yet  finished.  Throughout  Spain  annual  con- 
tributions for  its  sacred  objects  continued  to  be 
taken  for  many  years.  Nor  in  Spain  only  did 
it  awaken  sympathy.  In  Italy  and  France  also  it 
successfully  labored  ;  and  as  late  as  1748,  inspired 
by  a  similar  catholic  spirit,  if  not  by  its  example, 
a  proposition  appeared  in  England  "  to  establish  a 
society  to  carry  on  the  truly  charitable  design  of 
emancipating"  sixty-four  Englishmen,  slaves  in 
Morocco.3 


1  Haedo,  Historia  de  Argel,  pp.  142-144  ;  Diatogo  I.de  la  Cap- 
tiitdad. 

2  Roscoe's  Life  of  Cervantes,  p.  50.    See  his  story  of  Espanola 
Jnglesa. 

3  Gentleman's  Mag.  xviii.  p.  413. 


52 


WHITE   SLAVERY 


War  and  ransom  were  not  the  only  agents  of 
emancipation.  Even  if  history  were  silent,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  suppose  that  the  slaves  of 
African  Barbary  endured  their  lot  without  strug- 
gles for  freedom. 

Since  the  first  moment  they  put  on  my  chains, 
I've  thought  on  nothing  but  the  weight  of  them, 
And  how  to  throw  them  off. 

These  are  the  words  of  a  slave  in  the  play ; l  but 
they  express  the  natural  inborn  sentiments  of  all 
who  have  intelligence  sufficient  to  appreciate  the 
great  boon  of  freedom.  "Thanks  be  to  God," 
says  the  captive  in  Don  Quixote,  "for  the  great 
mercies  bestowed  upon  me  ;  for,  in  my  opinion, 
there  is  no  happiness  on  earth  equal  to  that  of 
liberty  regained."2  And  plain  Thomas  Phelps  — 
once  a  slave  at  Machiness,  in  Morocco,  whence,  in 
1685,  he  fortunately  escaped  —  in  the  narrative 
of  his  adventures  and  sufferings,  breaks  forth  in  a 
similar  strain.  "  Since  my  escape,"  he  says,  "  from 
captivity,  and  worse  than  Egyptian  bondage,  I 
have,  methinks,  enjoyed  a  happiness  with  which 
my  former  life  was  never  acquainted ;  now  that, 
after  a  storm  and  terrible  tempest,  I  have,  by  mir- 


1  Oronooko,  act  iii.  sc.  i.     It  is  not  strange  that  the  anti-slavery 
character  of   this  play  rendered  it  an  unpopular  performance  at 
Liverpool,  while  the  prosperous  merchants  there  were    concerned 
in  the  slave  trade. 

2  Don  Quixote,  part  i.  book  iv.  chap.  12. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  53 

acle,  put  into  a  safe  and  quiet  harbor,  —  after  a 
most  miserable  slavery  to  the  most  unreasonable 
and  barbarous  of  men,  now  that  I  enjoy  the  immu- 
nities and  freedom  of  my  native  country  and  the 
privileges  of  a  subject  of  England,  although  my 
circumstances  otherwise  are  but  indifferent,  yet  I 
find  I  am  affected  with  extraordinary  emotions 
and  singular  transports  of  joy ;  now  I  know  what 
liberty  is,  and  can  put  a  value  and  make  a  just  es- 
timate of  that  happiness  which  before  I  never  well 
understood.  Health  can  be  but  slightly  esteemed 
by  him  who  never  was  acquainted  with  pain  or 
sickness  ;  and  liberty  and  freedom  are  the  hap- 
piness only  valuable  by  a  reflection  on  captivity 
and  slavery." 1 

The  history  of  Algiers  abounds  in  well-authenti- 
cated examples  of  conspiracy  against  the  government 
by  Christian  slaves.  So  strong  was  the  passion 
for  freedom !  In  1531  and  1559,  two  separate 
plans  were  matured,  which  promised  for  a  while 
entire  success.  The  slaves  were  numerous  ;  keys 
to  open  the  prisons  had  been  forged,  and  arms 
supplied ;  but,  by  the  treason  of  one  of  their  num- 
ber, the  plot  was  betrayed  to  the  Dey,  who  sternly 
doomed  the  conspirators  to  the  bastinado  and  the 
stake.  Cervantes,  during  his  captivity,  nothing 
daunted  by  these  disappointed  efforts,  and  the  ter- 
rible vengeance  which  awaited  them,  conceived 

1  Osborne's  Voyages,  vol.  ii.  p.  500. 


54  WHITE   SLAVERY 

the  plan  of  a  general  insurrection  of  the  Christian 
slaves,  to  secure  their  freedom  by  the  overthrow 
-of  the  Algerine  power,  and  the  surrender  of  the 
city  to  the  Spanish  crown.  This  was  in  the  spirit 
of  that  sentiment,  to  which  he  gives  utterance  in 
his  writings,  that  "  for  liberty  we  ought  to  risk 
life  itself,  slavery  being  the  greatest  evil  that  can 
fall  to  the  lot  of  man." l  As  late  as  1763,  there 
was  a  similar  insurrection  or  conspiracy.  "  Last 
month,"  says  a  journal  of  high  authority,2  "  the 
Christian  slaves  at  Algiers,  to  the  number  of  four 
thousand,  rose  and  killed  their  guards,  and  mas- 
sacred all  who  came  in  their  way  ;  but  after  some 
hours'  carnage,  during  which  the  streets  ran  with 
blood,  peace  was  restored." 

But  the  struggles  for  freedom  could  not  always 
assume  the  shape  of  conspiracies  against  the  gov- 
ernment. They  were  often  efforts  to  escape,  some- 
times in  numbers,  and  sometimes  singly.  The  cap- 
tivity of  Cervantes  was  filled  with  such,  in  which, 
though  constantly  balked,  he  persevered  with  de- 
termined courage  and  skill.  On  one  occasion,  he 
attempted  to  escape  by  land  to  Oran,  a  Spanish 
settlement  on  the  coast,  but  was  deserted  by  his 


1  Roscoe's  Life  of  Cervantes,  pp.  32,  310,  311.    In  the  same  spirit 
Thomas  Phelps  says  :  "  I  looked  upon  my  condition  as  desperate ; 
my  forlorn  and  languishing  state  of  life,  without  any  hope  of  re- 
demption, appeared  far  worse  than  the  terrors  of  a  most  cruel 
death."  —  Osborne's  Voyages,  vol.  ii.  p.  504. 

2  British  Annual  Register,  vol.  yi.p.  60. 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES.  55 

guide,  and  compelled  to  return.1  Another  en- 
deavor was  favored  by  a  number  of  his  own  coun- 
trymen, hovering  on  the  coast  in  a  vessel  from  Ma- 
jorca, who  did  not  think  it  wrong  to  aid  in  the 
liberation  of  slaves !  Another  was  promoted  by 
Christian  merchants  at  Algiers,  through  whose 
agency  a  vessel  was  actually  purchased  for  this 
purpose.2  And  still  another  was  supposed  to  be 
aided  by  a  Spanish 
ecclesiastic,  Father 
Olivar,  who,  being  at 
Algiers  to  procure  the 
legal  emancipation  of 
slaves,  could  not  re- 
sist the  temptation  to 
lend  a  generous  as- 
sistance to  the  strug- 
gles of  his  fellow- 
Christians  in  bonds. 

If  he  were  sufficiently  courageous  and  devoted  to 
do  this,  he  paid  the  bitter  penalty  which  similar 
services  to  freedom  have  found  elsewhere,  and  in 
another  age.  He  was  seized  by  the  Dey,  and 
thrown  into  chains ;  for  it  was  regarded  by  the 
Algerine  government  as  a  high  offence  to  further 
in  any  way  the  escape  of  a  slave.3 

1  El  Trato  de  Argel. 

2  Roscoe's  Life  of  Cervantes,  pp.  31,308, 309.   I  refer  to  Roscoe  as 
the  popular  authority.    His  work  appears  to  be  little  more  than  a 
compilation  from  Navarrete  and  Sismondi. 

3  Ibid.  p.  33.    See  also  Haedo,  Historia  de  Argel,  p.  185. 


56  WHITE   SLAVERY 

Endeavors  for  freedom  are  animating  ;  nor  can 
any  honest  nature  hear  of  them  without  a  throb  of 
sympathy.  AB  we  dwell  on  the  painful  narrative 
of  the  unequal  contest  between  tyrannical  power 
and  the  crushed  captive  or  slave,  we  resolutely 
enter  the  lists  on  the  side  of  freedom  ;  and  as  we 
behold  the  contest  waged  by  a  few  individuals,  or, 
perhaps,  by  one  alone,  our  sympathy  is  given  to 
his  weakness  as  well  as  to  his  cause.  To  him  we 
send  the  unfaltering  succor  of  our  good  wishes. 
For  him  we  invoke  vigor  of  arm  to  defend,  and 
fleetness  of  foot  to  escape.  The  enactments  of 
human  laws  are  vain  to  restrain  the  warm  tides 
of  the  heart.  We  pause  with  rapture  on  those 
historic  scenes,  in  which  freedom  has  been  at- 
tempted or  preserved  through  the  magnanimous 
salf-sacrifice  of  friendship  or  Christian  aid.  With 
palpitating  bosom  we  follow  the  midnight  flight 
of  Mary  of  Scotland  from  the  custody  of  her  stern 
jailers  ;  we  accompany  the  escape  of  Grotius  from 
prison  in  Holland,  so  adroitly  promoted  by  his 
wife ;  we  join  with  the  flight  of  Lavalette  in 
France,  aided  also  by  his  wife  ;  and  we  offer  our 
admiration  and  gratitude  to  Huger  and  Bollman, 
who,  unawed  by  the  arbitrary  ordinances  of  Aus- 
tria, strove  heroically,  though  vainly,  to  rescue 
Lafayette  from  the  dungeons  of  Olmutz.  The  laws 
of  Algiers — which  sanctioned  a  cruel  slavery,  and 
doomed  to  condign  penalties  all  endeavors  for 
freedom,  and  all  countenance  of  such  endeavors — 


IN  THE  BARBARY   STATES.  57 

can  no  longer  prevent  our  homage  to  Cervantes, 
not  less  gallant  than  renowned,  who  strove  so 
constantly  and  earnestly  to  escape  his  chains ;  nor 
our  homage  to  those  Christians  also  who  did  not 
fear  to  aid  him,  and  to  the  good  ecclesiastic  who 
suffered  in  his  cause. 

The  story  of  the  efforts  to  escape  from  slavery 
in  the  Barbary  States,  so  far  as  they  can  be  traced, 
are  full  of  interest.  The  following  is  in  the  exact 
words  of  an  early  writer  :  — 

"  One  John  Fox,  an  expert  mariner,  and  a  good, 
approved,  and  suffi- 
cient gunner,  was  (in 
the  raigne  of  Queene 
Elizabeth)  taken  by 
the  Turkes,  and  kept 
eighteen  yeeres  in 
most  miserable  bond- 
age and  slavery  ;  at 
the  end  of  which 
time,  he  espied  his  op- 
portunity (and  God 

assisting  him  withall)  that  hee  slew  his  keeper, 
and  fled  to  the  sea's  side,  where  he  found  a  gaily 
with  one  hundred  and  fifty  captive  Christians, 
which  hee  speedily  waying  their  anchor,  set  saile, 
and  fell  to  work  like  men,  and  safely  arrived  in 
Spaone ;  by  which  meanes  he  freed  himselfe  and 
a  number  of  poor  soules  from  long  and  intol- 
erable servitude  ;  after  which,  the  said  John  Fox 


58  WHITE  SLAVERY 

came  into  Englaud,  and  the  Queene  (being  rightly 
informed  of  his  brave  exploit)  did  graciously  enter- 
taine  him  for  her  servant,  and  allowed  him  a  yeer- 
ly  pension" l 

There  is  also,  in  the  same  early  source,  a  quaint 
description  of  what  occurred  to  a  ship  from 
Bristol,  captured,  in  1621,  by  an  Algerine  corsair. 
The  Englishmen  were  all  taken  out  except  four 
youths,  over  whom  the  Turks,  as  these  barbarians 
were  often  called  by  early  writers,  put  thirteen  of 
their  own  men  to  conduct  the  ship  as  a  prize  to 
Algiers ;  and  one  of  the  pirates,  a  strong,  able, 
stern,  and  resolute  person,  was  appointed  captain. 
"  These  four  poor  youths,"  so  the  story  proceeds, 
"being  thus  fallen  into  the  hands  of  merciless 
infidels,  began  to  study  and  complot  all  the  means 
they  could  for  the  obtayning  of  their  freedom. 
They  considered  the  lamentable  and  miserable 
estates  that  they  were  like  to  be  in,  as  to  be  de- 
barred forever  from  seeing  their  friends  and  coun- 
try, to  be  chained,  beaten,  made  slaves,  and  to  eat 
the  bread  of  affliction  in  the  galleys,  all  the  re- 
mainder of  their  unfortunate  lives,  and,  which  was 
worst  of  all,  never  to  be  partakers  of  the  heav- 
enly word  and  sacraments.  Thus,  being  quite 
hopeless,  and,  for  any  thing  they  knew,  forever 
helpless,  they  sailed  five  days  and  nights  under 
the  command  of  the  pirates,  when,  on  the  fifth 

1  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  vol.  ii.  p.  888. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  59 

night,  God,  in  his  great  mercy,  showed  them  a 
means  for  their  wished-for  escape."  A  sudden 
wind  arose,  when,  the  captain  coming  to  help  take 
in  the  mainsail,  two  of  the  English  youths  "  sud- 
denly took  him  by  the  breech  and  threw  him  over- 
board ;  but,  by  fortune,  he  fell  into  the  bunt  of 
the  sail,  where,  quickly  catching  hold  of  a  rope, 
he,  being  a  very  strong  man,  had  almost  gotten 
into  the  ship  again  ;  which  John  Cook  perceiving, 
leaped  speedily  to  the  pump,  and  took  off  the 
pump  brake,  or  handle,  and  cast  it  to  William 
Long,  bidding  him  knock  him  down,  which  he  was 
not  long  in  doing,  but,  lifting  up  the  wooden 
weapon,  he  gave  him  such  a  palt  on  the  pate,  as 
made  his  braines  forsake  the  possession  of  his 
head,  with  which  his  body  fell  into  the  sea."  The 
corsair  slave  dealers  were  overpowered.  The 
four  English  youths  drove  them  "  from  place  to 
place  in  the  ship,  and  having  coursed  them  from 
poop  to  the  forecastle,  they  there  valiantly  killed 
two  of  them,  and  gave  another  a  dangerous  wound 
or  two,  who,  to  escape  the  further  fury  of  their 
swords,  leaped  suddenly  overboard  to  go  seek 
his  captain."  The  other  nine  Turks  ran  between 
decks,  where  they  were  securely  fastened.  The 
English  now  directed  their  course  to  St.  Lucas,  in 
Spain,  and  "  in  short  time,  by  God's  ayde,  happily 
and  safely  arrived  at  the  said  port,  where  they  sold 
the  nine  Turks  for  galley  slaves,  for  a  good  summe  of 
money,  and  as  Ithinke,  a  great  deal  more  than  they 


60 


WHITE  SLAVEliY 


were  worth." x  "  He  that  shall  attribute  such 
things  as  these,"  says  the  ancient  historian,  grate- 
ful for  this  triumph  of  freedom,  "  to  the  arm  of 
flesh  and  blood,  is  forgetful,  ungrateful,  and,  in  a 
manner,  atheistical." 

From  the  same  authority  I  draw  another  narra- 
tive of  singular  success  in  achieving  freedom. 
Several  Englishmen,  being  captured  and  carried 
into  Algiers,  were  sold  as  slaves.  These  are  the 
words  of  one  of  their  number  :  "  We  were  hurried 

like  dogs  into  the  mar- 
ket, w/iere,  as  men  sell 
hacknies  in  England, 
we  were  tossed  up  and 
down  to  see  who  would 
give  most  for  us  ;  and 
although  we  had  heavy 
hearts,  and  looked  with 
sad  countenances,  yet 
many  came  to  behold  us, 
sometimes  taking  us  by 

the  hand,  sometimes  turning  us  round  about,  sometimes 
feeling  our  brawny  and  naked  armes,  and  so  beholding 
our  prices  written  in  our  breasts,  they  bargained  for  us 
accordingly,  and  at  last  we  were  all  sold."  Shortly  af- 
terwards several  were  put  on  board  an  Algerine 
corsair  to  serve  as  slaves.  One  of  them,  John 
Eawlins,  who  resembled  Cervantes  in  the  hardi- 


1  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  vol.  ii.  pp.  882-883. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  61 

hood  of  his  exertions  for  freedom,  —  as,  like 
him,  he  had  lost  the  use  of  an  arm,  —  arranged  a 
rising  or  insurrection  on  board.  "  0  hellish  sla- 
very," he  said,  "  to  be  thus  subject  to  dogs !  0 
God !  strengthen  my  heart  and  hand,  and  some- 
thing shall  be  done  to  ease  us  of  these  mischiefs, 
and  deliver  us  from  these  cruel  Mohammedan  dogs. 
What  can  be  worse?  I  will  either  attempt  my 
deliverance  at  one  time  or  another,  or  perish 
in  the  enterprise."  An  auspicious  moment  was 
seized  ;  and  eight  English  slaves  and  one  French, 
with  the  assistance  of  four  Hollanders,  freemen, 
succeeded,  after  a  bloody  contest,  in  overpowering 
fifty-two  Turks.  "  When  all  was  done,77  the  story 
proceeds,  "and  the  ship  cleared  of  the  dead 
bodies,  Eawlins  assembled  his  men  together,  and 
with  one  consent  gave  the  praise  unto  God,  using 
the  accustomed  service  on  shipboard,  and,  for 
want  of  books,  lifted  up  their  voices  to  God,  as  he  put 
into  their  hearts  or  renewed  their  memories  ;  then 
did  they  sing  a  psalin,  and,  last  of  all,  embraced 
one  another  for  playing  the  men  in  such  a  deliver- 
ance, whereby  our  fear  was  turned  into  joy,  and 
trembling  hearts  exhilarated  that  we  had  escaped 
such  inevitable  dangers,  and  especially  the  slavery 
and  terror  of  bondage  worse  than  death  itself. 
The  same  night  we  washed  our  ship,  put  every 
thing  in  as  good  order  as  we  could,  repaired  the 
broken  quarter,  set  up  the  biticle,  and  bore  up  the 


62 


WHITE  SLAVERY 


helme  for  England,  where,  by  God's  grace  and 
good  guiding,  we  arrived  at  Pliinouth,  February 
17th,  1622." l 

In  1685,  Thomas  Phelps  and  Edward  Baxter, 
Englishmen,  accomplished  their  escape  from  cap- 
tivity in  Machiness,  in  Morocco.  One  of  them 
had  made  a  previous  unsuccessful  attempt,  which 
drew  upon  him  the  punishment  of  the  bastinado, 
disabling  him  from  work  for  a  twelvemonth ;  "  but 
such  was  his  love  of  Christian  liberty,  that  he 
freely  declared  to  his  companion,  that  he  would 

adventure  with  any 
fair  opportunity." 
By  devious  paths, 
journeying  in  the 
darkness  of  night, 
and  by  day  shelter- 
ing themselves  from 
observation  in  bushes, 
or  in  the  branches 
of  fig  trees,  they  at 
length  reached  the 

sea.  With  imminent  risk  of  discovery,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  a  boat,  not  far  from  Sallee. 
This  they  took  without  consulting  the  propri- 
etor, and  rowed  to  a  ship  at  a  distance,  which, 
to  their  great  joy,  proved  to  be  an  English  man- 
of-war.  Making  known  to  its  commander  the 


1  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  vol.  ii.  pp.  889-896. 


IN  THE  BABBABY  STATES.  63 

exposed  situation  of  the  Moorish  ships,  they 
formed  part  of  an  expedition  in  boats,  which 
boarded  and  burned  them,  in  the  night.  "  One 
Moor,"  says  the  account,  "  we  found  aboard,  who 
was  presently  cut  in  pieces  ;  another  was  shot  in 
the  head,  endeavoring  to  escape  upon  the  cable  ; 
we  were  not  long  in  taking  in  our  shavings  and 
tar  barrels,  and  so  set  her  on  fire  in  several 
places,  she  being  very  apt  to  receive  what  we 
designed  ;  for  there  were  several  barrels  of  tar 
upon  deck,  and  she  was  newly  tarred,  as  if  on 
purpose.  Whilst  we  were  setting  her  on  fire, 
we  heard  a  noise  of  some  people  in  the  hold  ;  we 
opened  the  scuttles,  and  thereby  saved  the  lives 
of  four  Christians,  three  Dutchmen  and  one 
French,  who  told  us  the  ship  on  fire  was  Ad- 
miral, and  belonged  to  Aly-Hackum,  and  the 
other,  which  we  soon  after  served  with  the  same 
sauce,  was  the  very  ship  which  in  October  last 
took  me  captive."  The  Englishman,  once  a  cap- 
tive, who  tells  this  story,  says  it  is  "most  especial- 
ly to  move  pity  for  the  afflictions  of  Joseph,  to 
excite  compassionate  regard  to  those  poor  coun- 
trymen now  languishing  in  misery  and  irons,  to 
endeavor  their  releasement." l 

Even  the  non-resistance  of  Quakers,  animated 
by  a  zeal  for  freedom,  contrived  to  baffle  these 
slave  dealers.  A  ship  in  the  charge  of  people  of 

1  Osborne's  Voyages,  vol.  ii.  pp.  497-510. 


64 


WHITE  SLAVERY 


this  sect  became  the  prey  of  the  Algerines ;  and 
the  curious  story  is  told  with  details,  unnecessary 
to  mention  here,  of  the  effective  manner  in  which 
the  ship  was  subsequently  recaptured  by  the  crew 
without  loss  of  life.  To  complete  this  triumph, 
the  slave  pirates  were  safely  landed  on  their  own 
shores,  and  allowed  to  go  their  way  in  peace,  ac- 
knowledging with  astonishment  and  gratitude  this 
new  application  of  the  Christian  injunction  to  do 
good  to  them  that  hate  you.  Charles  the  Second, 
learning  from  the  master,  on  his  return,  that  "  he 

had  been  taken  by  the 
Turks,  and  redeemed 
himself  without  fight- 
ing," and  that  he  had 
subsequently  let  his 
enemies  go  free,  re- 
buked him,  saying, 
with  the  spirit  of  a 
slave  dealer,  "  You 
have  done  like  a  fool, 
for  you  might  have 

nad  a  good  gain  for  them."  And  to  the  mate 
he  said,  "  You  should  have  brought  the  Turks 
to  me."  "  I  thought  it  better  for  them  to  be  in  their 
own  country"  was  the  Quaker's  reply.1 

In  the  current  of  time  other  instances  occurred. 
A  letter  from  Algiers,  dated   August   6,    1772, 


1  SewelTs  History  of  the  Quakers,  pp.  392-397. 


IN  THE  BAEBAEY  STATES.  65 

and  preserved  in  the  British  Annual  Register, 
furnishes  the  following  story  : l  "A  most  remark- 
able escape,"  it  says,  "  of  some  Christian  prison- 
ers has  lately  been  effected  here,  which  will  un- 
doubtedly cause  those  that  have  not  had  that 
good  fortune  to  be  treated  with  utmost  rigor. 
On  the  morning  of  the  27th  July,  the  Dey  was 
informed  that  all  the  Christian  slaves  had  escaped 
the  over-night  in  a  galley  ;  this  news  soon  raised 
him,  and,  upon  inquiry,  it  was  found  to  have  been 
a  preconcerted  plan.  About  ten  at  night,  seven- 
ty-four slaves,  who  had  found  means  to  escape 
from  their  masters,  met  in  a  large  square  near  the 
gate  which  opens  to  the  harbor,  and,  being  well 
armed,  they  soon  forced  the  guard  to  submit,  and, 
to  prevent  their  raising  the  city,  confined  them 
all  in  the  powder  magazine.  They  then  proceed- 
ed to  the  lower  part  of  the  harbor,  where  they 
embarked  on  board  a  large  rowing  polacre  that 
was  left  there  for  the  purpose,  and,  the  tide 
ebbing  out,  they  fell  gently  down  with  it,  and 
passed  both  the  forts.  As  soon  as  this  was 
known,  three  large  galleys  were  ordered  out  after 
them,  but  to  no  purpose.  They  returned  in  three 
days,  with  the  news  of  seeing  the  polacre  sail  into 
Barcelona,  where  the  galleys  durst  not  go  to  at- 
tack her." 
In  the  same  journal2  there  is  a  record  of  an- 

1  Vol.  xv.  p.  130.  2  Vol.  xix.  p.  176. 

5 


66  WHITE  SLAVERY 

other  triumph  of  freedom  in  a  letter  from  Palma, 
the  capital  of  Majorca,  dated  September  3,  1776. 
"  Forty-six  captives,"  it  says,  "  who  were  employed 
to  draw  stones  from  a  quarry  some  leagues'  dis- 
tance from  Algiers,  at  a  place  named  Genova,  re- 
solved, if  possible,  to  recover  their  liberty,  and 
yesterday  took  advantage  of  the  idleness  and  in- 


attention of  forty  men  who  were  to  guard  them, 
and  who  had  laid  down  their  arms,  and  were 
rambling  about  the  shore.  The  captives  attacked 
them  with  pickaxes  and  other  tools,  and  made 
themselves  masters  of  their  arms ;  and,  having 
killed  thirty-three  of  the  forty,  and  eleven  of  the 
thirteen  sailors  who  were  in  the  boat  which 
carried  the  stones,  they  obliged  the  rest  to  jump 
into  the  sea.  Being  then  masters  of  the  boat, 
and  armed  with  twelve  muskets,  two  pistols,  and 
powder,  they  set  sail,  and  had  the  good  fortune 
to  arrive  here  this  morning,  where  they  are  per- 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  67 

forming  quarantine.  Sixteen  of  them  are  Span- 
iards, seventeen  French,  eight  Portuguese,  three 
Italian,  one  a  German,  and  one  a  Sardinian." 

Thus  far  I  have  followed  the  efforts  of  Euro- 
pean nations,  and  the  struggles  of  Europeans, 
unhappy  victims  to  White  Slavery.  I  pass  now 
to  America,  and  to  our  own  country.  In  the 
name  of  fellow-countryman  there  is  a  charm  of 
peculiar  power.  The  story  of  his  sorrows  will 
come  nearer  to  our  hearts,  and,  perhaps,  to  the 
experience  of  individuals  or  families  among  us, 
than  the  story  of  Spaniards,  Frenchmen,  or  Eng 
lishmen.  Nor  are  materials  wanting. 

Even  in  the  early  days  of  the  colonies,  while 
they  were  yet  contending  with  the  savage  Indians, 
many  American  families  were  compelled  to  mourn 
the  hapless  fate  of  brothers,  fathers,  and  husbands 
doomed  to  slavery  in  distant  African  Barbary. 
Only  five  short  years  after  the  landing  of  the 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  Rock,1  it  appears  from  the 
records  of  the  town,  under  date  of  1625,  that 
"  two  ships,  freighted  from  Plymouth,  were  taken 
by  the  Turks  in  the  English  Channel,  and  carried 
into  Sallee."  A  little  later,  in  1640,  "  one  Austin, 
a  man  of  good  estate,"  returning  discontented  to 
England  from  Quinipiack,  now  New  Haven,  on  his 
way  "  was  taken  by  the  Turks,  and  his  wife  and 

1  Davis's  Extracts  relating  to  Plymouth,  p.  3. 


68  WHITE  SLAVERY 

family  were  carried  to  Algiers,  and  sold  there  as 
slaves."1  And,  under  date  of  1671,  in  the  diary 
of  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  the  first  minister  of  Rox- 
bury,  and  the  illustrious  apostle  to  the  Indians, 
prefixed  to  the  record  of  the  church  in  that  town, 
and  still  preserved  in  manuscript,  these  few  words 
tell  a  story  of  sorrow  :  "  We  heard  the  sad  and 
heavy  tidings  concerning  the  captivity  of  Captain 
Foster  and  his  son  at  Sallee."  From  further 
entries  in  the  diary  it  appears,  that,  after  a  bond- 
age of  three  years,  they  were  redeemed.  But 
the  same  record  shows  other  victims,  for  whom 
the  sympathies  of  the  church  and  neighborhood 
were  enlisted.  Here  is  one :  "  20  10m.  1674. 
This  Sabbath  we  had  a  public  collection  for  Ed- 
ward Howard  of  Boston,  to  redeem  him  out  of  his 
sad  Turkish  captivity,  in  which  collection  was 
gathered  £12  18s.  9d.,  which,  by  God's  favor, 
made  up  the  just  sum  desired."  And  not  long 
after,  at  a  date  left  uncertain,  it  appears  that 
William  Bowen  "  was  taken  by  the  Turks  ; "  a 
contribution  was  made  for  his  redemption  ;  "  and 
the  people  went  to  the  public  box,  young  and  old, 
but  before  the  money  could  answer  the  end  for 
which  the  congregation  intended  it,"  tidings  came 
of  the  death  of  the  unhappy  captive,  and  the 
money  was  afterwards  "  improved  to  build  a 
tomb  for  the  town  to  inter  their  ministers."2 

1  Winthrop's  Journal,  vol.  ii.  p.  11. 

2  MS.  Records  of  First  Church  in  Roxbury,  Massachusetts. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  69 

Instances  now  thicken.  A  ship,  sailing  from 
Charlestown,  in  1678,  was  taken  by  a  corsair,  and 
carried  into  Algiers,  whence  its  passengers  and 
crew  never  returned.  They  probably  died  in 
slavery.  Among  these  was  Dr.  Daniel  Mason,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard  College,  and  the  earliest  of 
that  name  on  *the  list ;  also  James  Ellson,  the 
mate.  The  latter,  in  a  testamentary  letter  ad- 
dressed to  his.  wife,  and  dated  at  Algiers,  June 
30,  1679,  desired  her  to  redeem  out  of  captivity 
two  of  his  companions.1  At  the  same  period  Wil- 
liam Harris,  a  person  of  consequence  in  the 
colony,  one  of  the  associates  of  Roger  Williams 
in  the  first  planting  of  Providence,  and  now  in  the 
sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  sailing  from  Boston 
for  England  on  public  business,  was  also  taken 
by  a  corsair,  and  carried  into  Algiers.  On  the 
23d  February,  1679,  this  veteran,  —  older  than 
the  slaveholder  Cato  when  he  learned  Greek,  — 
together  with  all  the  crew,  was  sold  into  slavery. 
The  fate  of  his  companions  is  unknown  ;  but  Mr. 
Harris,  after  remaining  in  this  condition  more 
than  a  year,  obtained  his  freedom  at  the  cost  of 
$1200,  called  by  him  "the  price  of  a  good  farm." 
The  feelings  of  the  people  of  the  colony,  touched 
by  these  disasters,  are  concisely  expressed  in  a 
private  letter  dated  at  Boston,  New  England, 
November  10,  1680,  where  it  is  said,  "  The  Turks 

1  Middlesex  [Massachusetts]  Probate  Files  in  MS. 


70  WHITE  SLAVERY 

have  so  taken  our  New  England  ships  richly 
loaden  homeward  bound,  that  it  is  very  dangerous 
to  goe.  Many  of  our  neighbors  are  now  in  cap- 
tivity in  Argeer.  The  Lord  find  out  some  way 
for  their  redemption." l 

Still  later,  as  we  enter  the  next  century,  we 
meet  a  curious  notice  of  the  captivity  of  a  Bos- 
tonian.  Under  date  of  Tuesday,  January  11, 
1714,  Chief  Justice  Samuel  Sewell,  in  his  journal, 
after  describing  a  dinner  with  Mr.  Gee,  and 
mentioning  the  guests,  among  whom  were  the 
famous  divines,  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather,  adds, 
"  It  seems  it  was  in  remembrance  of  his  landing 
this  day  at  Boston,  after  his  Algerine  captivity. 
Had  a  good  treat.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  in  re- 
turning thanks,  very  well  comprised  many  weigh- 
ty things  very  pertinently."2  Among  the  many 
weighty  things  very  pertinently  comprised  by  this 
eminent  preacher,  in  returning  thanks,  it  is  hoped, 
was  a  condemnation  of  slavery.  Surely  he  could 
not  then  have  shrunk  from  giving  utterance  to 
that  faith  which  preaches  deliverance  to  the 
captive. 

But  leaving  the  imperfect  records  of  colonial 
days,  I  descend  at  once  to  that  period,  almost 
in  the  light  of  these  times,  when  our  National 
Government,  justly  careful  of  the  liberty  of  its 
white  citizens,  was  aroused  to  put  forth  all  its 

i  William  Gilbert  to  Arthur  Bridge,  MS. 
MS.  Journal  of  Chief  Justice  Samuel  Sewell. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  71 

power  in  their  behalf.  The  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion closed  in  1783,  by  the  acknowledgment  of 
the  independence  of  the  United  States.  The  new 
national  flag,  then  freshly  unfurled,  and  hardly 
known  to  the  world,  seemed  to  have  little  power 
to  protect  persons  or  property  from  the  outrages 
of  the  Barbary  States.  Within  three  years,  no 
less  than  ten  American  vessels  became  their  prey. 
At  one  time  an  apprehension  prevailed,  that  Dr. 
Franklin  had  been  captured.  "  We  are  waiting," 
said  one  of  his  French  correspondents,  "  with  the 
greatest  patience  to  hear  from  you.  The  news- 
papers have  given  us  anxiety  on  your  account ; 
for  some  of  them  insist  that  you  have  been  taken 
by  the  Algerines,  while  others  pretend  that  you 
are  at  Morocco,  enduring  your  slavery  with  all 
the  patience  of  a  philosopher."  1  The  property 
of  our  merchants  was  sacrificed  or  endangered. 
Insurance  at  Lloyd's,  in  London,  could  be  had 
only  at  advanced  prices  ;  while  it  was  difficult 
to  obtain  freight  for  American  bottoms.2  The 
Mediterranean  trade  seemed  closed  to  our  enter- 
prise. To  a  people  filled  with  the  spirit  of  com- 
merce, and  bursting  with  new  life,  this  in  itself  was 
disheartening  ;  but  the  sufferings  of  our  unhappy 

1  Sparks's  Works  of  Franklin,  ix.  506,  507 ;  x.  230.     M.  Le  Veil- 
lard  to  Dr.  Franklin,  October  9,  1785. 

2  Boston  Independent  Chronicle,   April   28,  1785,  vol.  xvii.  No. 
866;  May  12,  1785,  No.  868;  Oct.  20,  1785,  No.  886 ;  Nov.  3,  1785, 
No.  8S8 ;  Nov.  17,  1785,  No.  890 ;  March  2,  1786,  vol.  xviii.  No. 
908  ;  April  27,  1786,  No.  918. 


72 


WHITE  SLAVERY 


fellow-citizens,  captives  in  a  distant  land,  aroused 
a  feeling  of  a  higher  strain. 

As  from  time  to  time  the  tidings  of  these  things 
reached  America,  a  voice  of  horror  and  indigna- 
tion swelled  through  the  land.  The  slave  cor- 
sairs of  African  Barbary  were  branded  sometimes 
as  "  infernal  crews,"  sometimes  as  "  human  har- 
pies." l  This  sentiment  acquired  new  force,  when, 
at  two  different  periods,  by  the  fortunate  escape 
of  captives,  what  seemed  an  authentic  picture  of 
their  condition  was  presented  to  the  world.  The 
story  of  these  fugitives  will  show  at  once  the 
hardships  of  their  lot,  and  the  foundation  of  the 
appeal  which  was  soon  made  to  the  country  with 
so  much  effect. 

The  earliest  of  these  escapes  was  in  1788,  by 

a  person  originally 
captured  in  a  vessel 
from  Boston.  At 
Algiers  he  had  been, 
with  the  rest  of  the 
ship's  company,  ex- 
posed for  sale  at  pub- 
lic auction,  whence  he 
was  sent  to  the  coun- 
try house  of  his  mas- 
ter, about  two  miles 
from  town.  Here,  for  the  space  of  eighteen 


1  Boston  Independent  Chronicle,  May  18,  1786,  xviii.  No.  916 ; 
Sparks's  Franklin,  ix.  506,  507. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  73 

months,  he  was  chained  to  the  wheelbarrow, 
and  allowed  only  one  pound  of  bread  a  day, 
during  all  which  wretched  period  he  had  no 
opportunity  to  learn  the  fate  of  his  companions. 
From  the  country  he  was  removed  to  Algiers, 
where,  in  a  numerous  company  of  white  slaves, 
he  encountered  three  of  his  shipmates,  and  twen- 
ty-six other  Americans.  After  remaining  for 
some  time  crowded  together  in  the  slave  prison, 
they  were  all  distributed  among  the  different  gal- 
leys in  the  service  of  the  Dey.  Our  fugitive,  with 
eighteen  other  white  slaves,  was  put  on  board  a 
xebec,  carrying  eight  six-pounders  and  sixty  men, 
which,  on  the  coast  of  Malta,  encountered  an 
armed  vessel  belonging  to  Genoa,  and,  after  much 
bloodshed,  was  taken  sword  in  hand.  Eleven  of 
the  unfortunate  slaves,  compelled  to  this  unwel- 
come service  in  the  cause  of  a  tyrannical  master, 
were  killed  in  the  contest,  before  the  triumph  of 
the  Genoese  could  deliver  them  from  their  chains. 
Our  countryman  and  the  few  still  alive  were  at 
once  set  at  liberty,  and,  it  is  said,  "treated  with 
that  humanity  which  distinguishes  the  Christian 
from  the  barbarian." l 

His  escape  was  followed  in  the  next  year  by 
that  of  several  others,  achieved  under  circum- 
stances widely  different.  They  had  entered,  about 
five  years  before,  on  board  a  vessel  belonging  to 

1  Boston  Independent  Chronicle,  Oct.  16,  1778,  vol.  xx.  No. 
1042;  History  of  the  War  with  Tripoli,  p.  59. 


74  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Philadelphia,  which  was  captured  near  the  West- 
ern Islands,  and  carried  into  Algiers.  The  crew, 
consisting  of  twenty  persons,  were  doomed  to 
bondage.  Several  were  sent  into  the  country  and 
chained  to  work  with  the  mules.  Others  were  put 
on  board  a  galley  and  chained  to  the  oars.  The 
latter,  tempted  by  the  facilities  of  their  position 
near  the  sea,  made  several  attempts  to  escape, 
which  for  some  time  proved  fruitless.  At  last, 
the  love  of  freedom  triumphing  over  the  sugges- 
tions of  humanity,  they  rose  upon  their  overseers ; 
some  of  whom  they  killed,  and  confined  others. 
Then,  seizing  a  small  galley  of  their  masters,  they 
set  sail  for  Gibraltar,  where  in  a  few  hours  they 
landed  as  freemen.1  Thus,  by  killing  their  keep- 
ers and  carrying  off  property  not  their  own,  did 
these  fugitive  white  slaves  achieve  their  liberty. 
Such  stories  could  not  be  recounted  without 
producing  a  strong  effect.  The  glimpses  thus 
opened  into  the  dread  regions  of  slavery  gave  a 
harrowing  reality  to  all  that  conjecture  or  imagi- 
nation had  pictured.  It  was,  indeed,  true,  that 
our  own  white  brethren,  heirs  to  the  freedom 
newly  purchased  by  precious  blood,  partakers  in 
the  sovereignty  of  citizenship,  belonging  to  the 
fellowship  of  the  -Christian  church,  were  degraded 
in  unquestioning  obedience  to  an  arbitrary  task- 
master, sold  as  beasts  of  the  field,  and  galled  by 
the  manacle  and  the  lash !  It  was  true  that  they 

1  History  of  the  War  with  Tripoli,  p.  62.     American  Museum, 
vol.  viii.     Appendix. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  75 

were  held  at  fixed  prices;  and  that  their  only 
chance  of  freedom  was  to  be  found  in  the  earnest, 
energetic,  united  efforts  of  their  countrymen  in 
their  behalf.  It  is  not  easy  to  comprehend  the 
exact  condition  to  which  they  were  reduced. 
There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  differed  ma- 
terially from  that  of  other  Christian  captives  in 
Algiers.  The  masters  of  vessels  were  lodged  to- 
gether, and  indulged  with  a  table  by  themselves, 
though  a  small  iron  ring  was  attached  to  one  of 
their  legs,  to  denote  that  they  were  slaves.  The 
seamen  were  taught  and  obliged  to  work  at  the 
trade  of  carpenter,  blacksmith,  and  stone  mason, 
from  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  without  intermission,  except  for 
half  an  hour  at  dinner.1  Some  of  the  details  of 
their  mode  of  life,  as  transmitted  to  us,  are  doubt- 
less exaggerated.  It  is,  however,  sufficient  to  know 
that  they  were  slaves  ;  nor  is  there  any  other  hu- 
man condition,  which,  when  barely  mentioned, 
even  without  one  word  of  description,  so  strongly 
awakens  the  sympathies  of  every  just  and  enlight- 
ened lover  of  his  race. 

With  a  view  to  secure  their  freedom,  informal 
agencies  were  soon  established  under  the  direction 
of  our  minister  at  Paris  ;  and  the  Society  of  Re- 
demption  —  whose  beneficent  exertions,  commen- 
cing so  early  in  modern  history,  were  still  contin- 
ued—  offered  their  aid.  Our  agents  were  blandly 


History  of  the  War  between  the  United  States  and  Tripoli,  p.  52. 


76  WHITE  SLAVERY 

entertained  by  that  great  slave  dealer,  the  Dey  of 
Algiers,  who  informed  them  that  he  was  familiar 
with  the  exploits  of  Washington,  and,  as  he  never 
expected  to  see  him,  expressed  a  hope,  that, 
through  Congress,  he  might  receive  a  full-length 


portrait  of  this  hero  of  freedom,  to  be  displayed 
in  his  palace  at  Algiers.  He,  however,  still  clung 
to  his  American  slaves,  holding  them  at  prices  be- 
yond the  means  of  the  agents.  These,  in  1786, 
were  $6000  for  a  master  of  a  vessel,  $4000  for  a 
mate,  $4000  for  a  passenger,  and  $1400  for  a  sea- 
man ;  whereas  the  agents  were  authorized  to  offer 
only  $200  for  each  captive.1  In  1790,  the  tariff 
of  prices  seems  to  have  fallen.  Meanwhile,  one 
obtained  his  freedom  through  private  means,  oth- 
ers escaped,  and  others  still  were  liberated  by  the 
great  liberator  Death.  The  following  list,  if  not 
interesting  from  the  names  of  the  captives,  will 


Lyman's  Diplomacy,  vol.  ii.  p.  353. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  77 

at  least  be  curious  as  evidence  of  the  sums  de- 
manded for  them  in  the  slave  market : l  — 

Crew  of  the  Ship  Dolphin,  of  Philadelphia,  captured 
July  30, 1785. 

Sequins. 

Kichard  O'Brien,  master,  price  demanded,  2,000 

Andrew  Montgomery,  mate,  1,500 

Jacob  Tessanier,  French  passenger,  2,000 

William  Patterson,  seaman,  (keeps  a  tavern,)  1,500 

Philip  Sloan,  725 

Peleg  Loring,              "  725 

John  Eobertson,          "  725 

James  Hall,                "  725 

Crew  of  the  Schooner  Maria,  of  Boston,   captured 

July  25,  1785. 

Isaac  Stevens,  master,  (of  Concord,  Mass.,)  2,000 
Alexander  Forsythe,  mate,  1,500 

James  Cathcart,  seaman,  (keeps  a  tavern,)  900 
George  Smith,  "  (in  the  Dey's  house,)  725 
John  Gregory,  "  725 

James  Hermit,        "  725 

16,475 

Duty  on  the  above  sum,  ten  per  cent.,  1,647£ 

Sundry  gratifications  to  officers  of  the 

Dey's  household,  240£ 

Sequins  18,362£ 
This  sum  being  equal  to  $34,792. 

1  Lyman's  Diplomacy  vol.  ii.  p.  357 ;  History  of  the  War  with 
Tripoli,  p.  64. 


78  WHITE  SLAVERY 

In  1793,  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
American  slaves  in  Algiers.1  Their  condition  ex- 
cited the  fraternal  feeling  of  the  whole  people, 
while  it  occupied  the  anxious  attention  of  Con- 
gress and  the  prayers  0f  the  clergy.  A  petition 
dated  at  Algiers,  December  29,  1793,  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  these 
unhappy  persons.2  "  Your  petitioners,"  it  says, 
"  are  at  present  captives  in  this  city  of  bondage, 
employed  daily  in  the  most  laborious  work,  with- 
out any  respect  to  persons.  They  pray  that  you 
will  take  their  unfortunate  situation  into  consider- 
ation, and  adopt  such  measures  as  will  restore  the 
American  captives  to  their  country,  their  friends, 
families,  and  connections ;  and  your  petitioners 
will  ever  pray  and  be  thankful."  But  the  action 
of  Congress  was  sluggish,  compared  with  the  swift 
desires  of  all  lovers  of  freedom. 

Appeals  of  a  different  character,  addressed  to 
the  country  at  large,  were  now  commenced.  These 
were  efficiently  aided  by  a  letter  to  the  Ameri- 
can people,  dated  Lisbon,  July  11,  1794,  from 
Colonel  Humphreys,  the  friend  and  companion  of 
Washington,  and  at  that  time  our  minister  to  Por- 
tugal. Taking  advantage  of  the  general  interest 
in  lotteries,  and  particularly  of  the  custom,  not 
then  condemned,  of  resorting  to  these  as  a  mode 
of  obtaining  money  for  literary  or  benevolent  pur- 
poses, he  suggested  a  grand  lottery,  sanctioned  by 

1  Lyman's  Diplomacy,  vol.  ii.  p.  359.  2  Ibid.  p.  360. 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES.  79 

the  United  States,  or  particular  lotteries  in  the  in- 
dividual states,  in  order  to  obtain  the  means  re- 
quired to  purchase  the  freedom  of  our  countrymen. 
He  then  asks,  "  Is  there  within  the  limits  of  these 
United  States  an  individual  who  will  not  cheer- 
fully contribute,  in  proportion  to  his  means,  to  car- 
ry it  into  effect?  By  the  peculiar  blessings  of 
freedom  which  you  enjoy,  by  the  disinterested  sac- 
rifices you  made  for  its  attainment,  by  the  patriotic 
blood  of  those  martyrs  of  liberty  who  died  to  se- 
cure your  independence,  and  by  all  the  tender  ties 
of  nature,  let  me  conjure  you  once  more  to  snatch 
your  unfortunate  countrymen  from  fetters,  dun- 
geons, and  death." 

This  appeal  was  followed  shortly  after  by  a  pe- 
tition from  the  American  captives  in  Algiers, 
addressed  to  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  of  every 
denomination  throughout  the  United  States,  pray- 
ing their  help  in  the  sacred  cause  of  Emancipation. 
It  begins  by  an  allusion  to  the  day  of  national 
thanksgiving  appointed  by  President  Washington, 
and  proceeds  to  ask  the  clergy  to  set  apart  the 
Sunday  preceding  that  day  for  sermons,  to  be  de- 
livered contemporaneously  throughout  the  country 
in  behalf  of  their  brethren  in  bonds.1 

"Reverend  and  Respected, — 

"On  Thursday,  the  19th  of  February,  1795,  you 
are  enjoined  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  of 
America  to  appear  in  the  various  temples  of  that  God 

1  History  of  the  War  with  Tripoli,  pp.  69-71. 


80  WHITE  SLAVERY 

who  hcareth  the  groaning  of  the  prisoner,  and  in  mercy 
remembereth  those  who  are  appointed  to  die. 

"  Nor  are  ye  to  assemble  alone ;  for  on  this,  the  high 
day  of  continental  thanksgiving,  all  the  religious  socie- 
ties and  denominations  throughout  the  Union,  and  all 
persons  whomsoever  within  tHe  limits  of  the  confed- 
erated States,  are  to  enter  the  courts  of  Jehovah,  with 
their  several  pastors,  and  gratefully  to  render  unfeigned 
thanks  to  the  Euler  of  nations  for  the  manifold  and  sig- 
nal mercies  which  distinguish  your  lot  as  a  people ;  in 
a  more  particular  manner,  commemorating  your  exemp- 
tion from  foreign  war ;  being  greatly  thankful  for  the 
preservation  of  peace  at  home  and  abroad ;  and  fer- 
vently beseeching  the  kind  Author  of  all  these  blessings 
graciously  to  prolong  them  to  you,  and  finally  to  render 
the  United  States  of  America  more  and  more  an  asylum 
for  the  unfortunate  of  every  clime  under  heaven. 

"  Reverend  and  Respected,  — 

"  Most  fervent  are  our  daily  prayers,  breathed  in  the 
sincerity  of  woes  unspeakable ;  most  ardent  are  the  im- 
bittered  aspirations  of  our  afflicted  spirits,  that  thus  it 
may  be  in  deed  and  in  truth.  Although  we  are  prison- 
ers in  a  foreign  land,  although  we  are  far,  very  far  from 
our  native  homes,  although  our  harps  are  hung  upon 
the  weeping  willows  of  slavery,  nevertheless  America 
is  still  preferred  above  our  chiefest  joy,  and  the  last 
wish  of  our  departing  souls  shall  be  her  peace,  her  pros- 
perity, her  liberty  forever.  On  this  day,  the  day  of  fes- 
tivity and  gladness,  remember  us,  your  unfortunate 
brethren,  late  members  of  the  family  of  freedom,  now 
doomed  to  perpetual  confinement.  Pray,  earnestly  pray, 
that  our  grievous  calamities  may  have  a  gracious  end. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  81 

Supplicate  the  Father  of  mercies  for  the  most  ivretched 
of  his  offspring.  Beseech  the  God  of  all  corfsolation  to 
comfort  us  by  the  hope  of  final  restoration.  Implore  the 
Jesus  whom  you  worship  to  open  the  house  of  the  prison. 
Entreat  the  Christ  whom  you  adore  to  let  the  miserable 
captives  go  free. 

"Reverend  and  Respected,  — 

"It  is  not  your  prayers  alone,  although  of  much 
avail,  which  we  beg  on  the  bending  knee  of  sufferance, 
galled  by  the  corroding  fetters  of  slavery.  We  conjure 
you  by  the  bowels  of  the  mercies  of  the  Almighty,  we 
ask  you  in  the  name  of  your  Father  in  heaven,  to  have 
compassion  on  our  miseries,  to  wipe  away  the  crystal- 
lized tears  of  despondence,  to  hush  the  heartfelt  sigh 
of  distress ;  and  by  every  possible  exertion  of  godlike 
charity,  to  restore  us  to  our  wives,  to  our  children,  to  our 
friends,  to  our  God  and  to  yours. 

"  Is  it  possible  that  a  stimulus  can  be  wanting  ?  For- 
bid it,  the  example  of  a  dying,  bleeding,  crucified  Sa- 
vior !  Forbid  it,  the  precepts  •  of  a  risen,  ascended, 
glorified  Immanuel !  Do  unto  us  in  fetters,  in  bonds,  in 
dungeons,  in  danger  of  the  pestilence,  as  ye  yourselves 
would  wish  to  be  done  unto.  Lift  up  your  voices  like  a 
trumpet ;  cry  aloud  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  benevo- 
lence, philosophy  ;  eloquence  can  never  be  directed  to  a 
nobler  purpose  ;  religion  never  employed  in  a  more  glo- 
rious cause  ;  charity  never  meditate  a  more  exalted  flight. 
O  that  a  live  coal  from  the  burning  altar  of  celestial 
beneficence  might  warm  the  hearts  of  the  sacred  order, 
and  impassion  the  feelings  of  the  attentive  hearer ! 


82  WHITE   SLAVERY 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  Clergy  in  New  Hampshire,  Rhode 
Island,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Virginia,  — 

"Your  most  zealous  exertions,  your  unremitting  assi- 
duities, are  pathetically  invoked.  Those  States  in  which 
you  minister  unto  the  Church  of  God  gave  us  birth. 
We  are  as  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  America. 
We  are  strangers  to  the  temples  of  our  God.  The 
strong  arm  of  infidelity  hath  bound  us  with  two  chains ; 
the  iron  one  of  slavery  and  the  sword  of  death  are 
entering  our  very  souls.  Arise,  ye  ministers  of  the  Most 
High,  Christians  of  every  denomination,  awake  unto 
charity!  Let  a  brief,  setting  forth  our  situation,  be 
published  throughout  the  continent.  Be  it  read  in  every 
house  of  worship,  on  Sunday,  the  8th  of  February. 
Command  a  preparatory  discourse  to  be  delivered  on 
Sunday,  the  15th  of  February,  in  all  churches  whitherso- 
ever th-is  petition  or  the  brief  may  come  ;  and  on  Thurs- 
day, the  l$th  of  February,  complete  the  godlike  work. 
It  is  a  day  which  assembles  a  continent  to  thanksgiving. 
It  is  a  day  which  calls  an  empire  to  praise.  God  grant 
that  this  may  be  the  day  which  emancipates  the  forlorn 
captive,  and  may  the  best  blessings  of  those  who  are 
ready  to  perish  be  your  abiding  portion  forever !  Thus 
prays  a  small  remnant  who  are  still  alive ;  thus  pray 
your  fellow-citizens,  chained  to  the  galleys  of  the  impos- 
tor Mahomet. 

"  Signed  for  and  in  behalf  of  his  fellow-sufferers,  by 

"  RICHARD  O'BRIEN, 
66  In  the  tenth  year  of  his  captivity." 


IN  THE  BARBARY   STATES.  83 

The  cause  in  which  this  document  was  written 
will  indispose  the  candid  reader  to  any  criticism  of 
its  somewhat  exuberant  language.  Like  the  drama 
of  Cervantes,  setting  forth  the  horrors  of  the  gal- 
leys of  Algiers,  "  it  was  not  drawn  from  the  imagi- 
nation, but  was  born  far  from  the  regions  of  fiction, 
in  the  very  heart  of  truth."  Its  earnest  appeals 
were  calculated  to  touch  the  soul,  and  to  make  the 
very  name  of  slavery  and  slave  dealer  detestable. 

And  here  I  should  do  injustice  to  the  truth  of 
history,  if  I  did  not  suspend  for  one  moment  the 
narrative  of  this  Anti-Slavery  movement,  in  order 
to  exhibit  the  pointed  parallels  then  extensively 
recognized  between  Algerine  and  American  sla- 
very. The  conscientious  man  could  not  plead  in 
behalf  of  the  emancipation  of  his  white  fellow- 
citizens,  without  confessing  in  his  heart,  perhaps 
to  the  world,  that  every  consideration,  every  ar- 
gument, every  appeal  urged  for  the  white  man, 
told  with  equal  force  in  behalf  of  his  wretched 
colored  brother  in  bonds.  Thus  the  interest 
awakened  for  the  slave  in  Algiers  embraced  also 
the  slave  at  home.  Sometimes  they  were  said  to 
be  alike  in  condition  ;  sometimes,  indeed,  it  was 
openly  declared  that  the  hoyrors  of  our  American 
slavery  surpassed  that  of  Algiers. 

John  Wesley,  the  oracle  of  Methodism,  address- 
ing those  engaged  in  the  negro  slave  trade, 
said,  as  early  as  1772,  "  You  have  carried  the  sur- 


84  WHITE  SLAVERY 

vivors  into  the  vilest  of  slavery,  never  to  end  but 
with  life  —  such  slavery  as  is  not  found  among  the 
Turks  at  Algiers" l  And  another  writer,  in  1794, 
when  the  sympathy  with  the  American  captives 
was  at  its  height,  presses  the  parallel  in  pungent 
terms :  "  For  this  practice  of  buying  and  selling 
slaves/7  he  says,  "  we  are  not  entitled  to  charge 
the  Algerines  with  any  exclusive  degree  of  bar- 
barity. The  Christians  of  Europe  and  America 
carry  on  this  commerce  one  hundred  times  more 
extensively  than  the  Algerines.  It  has  received  a 
recent  sanction  from  the  immaculate  Divan  of 
Britain.  Nobody  seems  even  to  be  surprised  by  a 
diabolical  kind  of  advertisements,  which,  for  some 
months  past,  have  frequently  adorned  the  news- 
papers of  Philadelphia.  The  French  fugitives 
from  the  West  Indies  have  brought  with  them  a 
crowd  of  slaves.  These  most  injured  people  some- 
times run  off,  and  their  master  advertises  a  reward 
for  apprehending  them.  At  the  same  time,  we  are 
commonly  informed  that  his  sacred  name  is  marked 
in  capitals  on  their  breasts  ;  or,  in  plainer  terms, 
it  is  stamped  on  that  part  of  the  body  with  a  red- 
hot  iron.  Before,  therefore,  we  reprobate  the 
ferocity  of  the  Algerines,  we  should  inquire 
whether  it  is  not  possible  to  find  in  some  other 
region  of  this  globe  a  systematic  brutality  still 
more  disgraceful.7'2 

1  Wesley's  Thoughts  on  Slavery,  (1772,)  p.  26. 

*  Short  Account  of  Algiers,  (Philadelphia,  1794,)  p.  18. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  85 

Not  long  after  the  address  to  the  clergy  by  the 
captives  in  Algiers,  a  publication  appeared  in  New 
Hampshire,  entitled  "  Tyrannical  Libertymen  ;  a 
Discourse  upon  Negro  Slavery  in  the  United 

States,  composed  at in  New  Hampshire  on 

the  late  Federal  Thanksgiving  Day," l  which  does 
not  hesitate  to  brand  American  slavery  in  terms 
of  glowing  reprobation.  "  There  was  a  contribu- 
tion upon  this  day,"  it  says,  "  for  the  purpose  of 
redeeming  those  Americans  who  are  in  slavery  at 
Algiers  —  an  object  worthy  of  a  generous  people. 
Their  redemption,  we  hope,  is  not  far  distant. 
But  should  any  person  contribute  money  for  this 
purpose  which  he  had  cudgelled  out  of  a  negro 
slave,  he  would  deserve  less  applause  than  an 
actor  in  the  comedy  of  Las  Casas.  .  .  .  When 
will  Americans  show  that  they  are  what  they 
affect  to  be  thought  —  friends  to  the  cause  of  hu- 
manity at  large,  reverers  of  the  rights  of  their 
fellow-creatures?  Hitherto  we  have  been  op- 
pressors ;  nay,  murderers !  for  many  a  negro  has 
died  by  the  whip  of  his  master,  and  many  have 
lived  when  death  would  have  been  preferable. 
Surely  the  curse  of  God  and  the  reproach  of  man 
is  against  us.  Worse  than  the  seven  plagues  of 
Egypt  will  befall  us.  If  Algiers  shall  be  punished 
sevenfold,  truly  America  seventy  and  sevenfold." 

To  the  excitement  of  this  discussion  we  are  in- 

1  From  the  Eagle  Office,  Hanover,  New  Hampshire,  1795. 


86  WHITE   SLAVERY 

debted  for  the  story  of  "  The  Algerine  Captive ; " 
a  work  to  which,  though  now  forgotten,  belongs 
the  honor  of  being  among  the  earliest  literary  pro- 
ductions of  our  country  reprinted  in  London,  at 
a  time  when  few  American  books  were  known 
abroad.  It  was  published  anonymously,  but  is 
known  to  have  been  written  by  Royall  Tyler, 
afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  Vermont.  In  the 
form  of  a  narrative  of  personal  adventures,  ex- 
tending through  two  volumes,  as  a  slave  in  Algiers, 
the  author  depicts  the  horrors  of  this  condition. 
In  this  regard  it  is  not  unlike  the  story  of  "  Archy 
Moore/7  in  our  own  day,  displaying  the  horrors  of 
American  slavery.  The  author,  while  engaged  as 
surgeon  on  board  a  ship  in  the  African  slave  trade, 
is  taken  captive  by  the  Algerines.  After  describ- 
ing the  reception  of  the  poor  negroes,  he  says, 
"  I  cannot  reflect  on  this  transaction  yet  without 
shuddering.  I  have  deplored  my  conduct  with 
tears  of  anguish ;  and  I  pray  a  merciful  God,  the 
common  Parent  of  the  great  family  of  the  uni- 
verse, who  hath  made  of  one  flesh  and  one  blood 
all  nations  of  the  earth,  that  the  miseries,  the 
insults,  and  cruel  woundings  I  afterwards  received, 
when  a  slave  myself,  may  expiate  for  the  inhuman- 
ity I  was  necessitated  to  exercise  towards  these 
my  brethren  of  the  human  race."1  And  when  at 
length  he  is  himself  made  captive  by  the  Alge- 

1  Chap.  xxx. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  87 

rines,  he  records  his  meditations  and  resolves. 
"  Grant  me,"  he  says,  from  the  depths  of  his  own 
misfortune,  "  once  more  to  taste  the  freedom  of  my 
native  country,  and  every  moment  of  my  life  shall 
be  dedicated  to  preaching  against  this  detesta- 
ble commerce.  I  will  fly  to  our  fellow-citizens  in 
the  Southern  States  ;  I  will,  on  my  knees,  conjure 
them,  in  the  name  of  humanity,  to  abolish  a  traffic 
which  causes  it  to  bleed  in  every  pore.  If  they 
are  deaf  to  the  pleadings  of  nature,  I  will  conjure 
them,  for  the  sake  of  consistency,  to  cease  to  de^ 
prive  their  fellow-creatures  of  freedom,  which 
their  writers,  their  orators,  representatives,  sena- 
tors, and  even  their  constitutions  of  government, 
have  declared  to  be  the  unalienable  birthright  of 
man."1 

But  this  comparison  was  presented  not  merely 
in  the  productions  of  literature,  or  in  fugitive 
essays.  It  was  distinctly  set  forth,  on  an  impor- 
tant occasion,  in  the  diplomapy  of  our  country,  by 
one  of  her  most  illustrious  citizens.  Complaint 
had  been  made  against  England  for  carrying 
away  from  New  York  certain  negroes,  in  alleged 
violation  of  the  treaty  of  1783.  In  an  elaborate 
paper  discussing  this  matter,  John  Jay,  at  that 
time,  under  the  Confederation,  Secretary  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  says,  "  Whether  men  can  be  so 
degraded  as,  under  any  circumstances,  to  be  with 

1  Chap,  xxxii. 


88  WHITE   SLAVERY 

propriety  denominated  goods  and  chattels,  and, 
under  that  idea,  capable  of  becoming  booty,  is  a 
question  on  which  opinions  are  unfortunately 
various,  even  in  countries  professing  Christianity 
and  respect  for  the  rights  of  mankind."  He  then 
proceeds,  in  words  worthy  of  special  remembrance 
at  this  time  :  "  If  a  war  should  take  place  between 
France  and  Algiers,  and  in  the  course  of  it  France 
should  invite  the  American  slaves  there  to  run 
away  from  their  masters,  and  actually  receive  and 
protect  them  in  their  camp,  what  would  Congress, 
and  indeed  the  world,  think  and  say  of  France,  if, 
in  making  peace  with  Algiers,  she  should  give  up 
those  American  slaves  to  their  former  Algerine 
masters?  Is  there  any  difference  between  the  two 
cases  than  this,  viz.,  that  the  American  slaves  at 
Algiers  are  WHITE  people,  whereas  the  African  slaves 
at  New  York  were  BLACK  people  ?"  In  intro- 
ducing these  sentfments,  the  Secretary  remarks, 
"He  is  aware  he  is  about  to  say  unpopular 
things ;  but  higher  motives  than  personal  con- 
siderations press  him  to  proceed." x  Words  wor- 
thy of  John  Jay! 

The  same  comparison  was  also  presented  by  the 
Abolition  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  in  an  Address, 
in  1787,  to  the  Convention  which  framed  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution.  "  Providence/7  it  says,  "  seems 
to  have  ordained  the  sufferings  of  our  American 

1  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  1786,  vol.  iv.  pp.  274-280. 


IN   THE  BARBARY  STATES.  89 

brethren,  groaning  in  captivity  at  Algiers,  to  awa- 
ken us  to  a  sentiment  of  the  injustice  and  cruelty 
of  which  we  are  guilty  towards  the  wretched 
Africans."1  Shortly  afterwards,  it  was  again 
brought  forward  by  Dr.  Franklin,  in  an  ingenious 
apologue,  marked  by  his  peculiar  humor,  sim- 
plicity, logic,  and  humanity.  As  President  of  the 
same  Abolition  Society,  which  had  already  ad- 
dressed the  Convention,  he  signed  a  memorial  to 
the  earliest  Congress  under  the  Constitution, 
praying  it  "  to  countenance  the  restoration  of 
liberty  to  those  unhappy  men,  who  alone,  in  this 
land  of  freedom,  are  degraded  into  perpetual 
bondage  ;  and  to  step  to  the  very  verge  of  the 
power  vested  in  them  for  discouraging  every  spe- 
cies of  traffic  in  the  persons  of  our  fellow-men.77 
In  the  debates  which  ensued  on  the  presentation 
of  this  memorial,  —  memorable  not  only  for  its 
intrinsic  importance  as  a  guide  to  the  country,  but 
as  the  final  public  act  of  one  of  the  chief  founders 
of  our  national  institutions,  —  several  attempts 
were  made  to  justify  slavery  and  the  slave  trade. 
The  last  and  almost  dying  energies  of  Franklin 
were  excited.  In  a  remarkable  document,  written 
only  twenty-four  days  before  his  death,  and  pub- 
lished in  the  journals  of  the  time,  he  gave  a  paro- 
dy of  a  speech  actually  delivered  in  the  American 
Congress  —  transferring  the  scene  to  Algiers,  and 

1  Brissot's  Travels,  vol.  i.  letter  22. 


90  WHITE  SLAVERY 

putting  the  American  speech  in  the  mouth  of  a 
corsair  slave  dealer,  in  the  Divan  at  that  place. 
All  the  arguments  adduced  in  favor  of  negro  sla- 
very are  applied  by  the  Algerine  orator  with 
equal  force  to  justify  the  plunder  and  enslavement 
of  whites.1  With  this  protest  against  a  great 
wrong,  Franklin  died. 

Most  certainly  we  shall  be  aided,  at  least  in  our 
appreciation  of  American  slavery,  when  we  know 
that  it  was  likened,  by  characters  like  Wesley, 
Jay,  and  Franklin,  to  the  abomination  of  slavery 
in  Algiers.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  in- 
fluence of  this  parallel  on  the  condition  of  the 
black  slaves,  it  did  not  check  the  rising  sentiments 
of  the  people  against  White  Slavery. 

The  country  was  now  aroused.  A  general  con- 
tribution was  proposed  for  the  emancipation  of 
our  brethren.  Their  cause  was  pleaded  in  church- 
es, and  not  forgotten  at  the  festive  board.  At  all 
public  celebrations,  the  toasts,  "Happiness  for 
all,"  and  "  Universal  Liberty,"  were  proposed,  not 
less  in  sympathy  with  the  efforts  for  freedom  in 
France  than  with  those  for  our  own  wretched  white 
fellow-countrymen  in  bonds.  On  at  least  one  oc- 
casion,2 they  were  distinctly  remembered  in  the 


1  Sparks's  Franklin,  vol.  ii.  p.  517- 

2  At  Portsmouth,  N.   H.,  at  a  public    entertainment,  April  3, 
1795,  in  honor  of  French  successes.  —  Boston  Independent  Chroni- 
cle, vol.  xxvii.  No.  1469. 


IN   THE   BARBARY   STATES.  91 

following  toast :  "  Our  brethren  in  slavery  at 
Algiers.  May  the  measures  adopted  for  their 
redemption  be  successful,  and  may  they  live  to 
rejoice  with  their  friends  in  the  blessings  of 
liberty." 

Meanwhile,  the  earnest  efforts  of  our  govern- 
ment were  continued.  In  his  message  to  Con- 
gress, bearing  date  December  8,  1795,  President 
Washington  said,  "  With  peculiar  satisfaction  I 
add,  that  information  has  been  received  from  an 
agent  deputed  on  our  part  to  Algiers,  importing 
that  the  terms  of  the  treaty  with  the  Dey  and 
regency  of  that  country  have  been  adjusted  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  authorize  the  expectation  of 
a  speedy  peace,  and  the  restoration  of  our  unfor- 
tunate fellow-citizens  from  a  grievous  captivity." 
This,  indeed,  had  been  already  effected  on  the  5th 
of  September,  1795.1  It  was  a  treaty  full  of  hu- 
miliation for  the  chivalry  of  our  country.  Besides 
securing  to  the  Algerine  government  a  large  sum, 
in  consideration  of  present  peace  and  the  libera- 
tion of  the  captives,  it  stipulated  for  an  annual 
tribute  from  the  United  States  of  twenty-one 
thousand  dollars.  But  feelings  of  pride  disap- 
peared in  heartfelt  satisfaction.  It  is  recorded 
that  a  thrill  of  joy  went  through  the  land  when 
it  was  announced  that  a  vessel  had  left  Algiers, 
having  on  board  all  the  Americans  who  had  been 

1  United  States  Statutes  at  Large,  (Little  &  Brown's  edit.,)  Trea- 
ties, vol.  viii.  p.  133 ;  Lyman's  Diplomacy,  vol.  ii.  p.  362. 


92  WHITE  SLAVERY 

in  captivity  there.  Their  emancipation  was  pur- 
chased at  the  cost  of  upwards  of  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  But  the  largess  of  money, 
and  even  the  indignity  of  tribute,  were  forgot- 
ten in  gratulations  on  their  new-found  happi- 
ness. The  President,  in  a  message  to  Congress, 
December  7, 1796,  presented  their  "  actual  liber- 
ation "  as  a  special  subject  of  joy  "  to  every  feel- 
ing heart."  Thus  did  our  government  construct 
a  Bridge  of  Gold  for  freedom. 

This  act  of  national  generosity  was  followed 
by  peace  with  Tripoli,  purchased  November  4, 
1796,  for  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  under 
the  guaranty  of  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  who  was  de- 
clared to  be  "  the  mutual  friend  of  the  parties." 
By  an  article  in  this  treaty,  negotiated  by  Joel 
Barlow,  —  out  of  tenderness,  perhaps,  to  Moham- 
medanism, and  to  save  our  citizens  from  the  sla- 
very which  was  regarded  as  the  just  doom  of 
"  Christian  dogs,"  —  it  was  expressly  declared 
that  "  the  government  of  the  United  States  of 
America  is  not  in  any  sense  founded  on  the  Chris- 
tian religion."  l  At  a  later  day,  by  a  treaty  with 
Tunis,  purchased  after  some  delay,  but  at  a  small- 
er price  than  that  with  Tripoli,  all  danger  to  our 
citizens  seemed  to  be  averted.  In  this  treaty  it 
was  ignominiously  provided,  that  fugitive  slaves, 
taking  refuge  on  board  American  merchant  ves- 

1  Article  11 ;  Lyman's  Diplomacy,  vol.  ii.  pp.  380,  381 ;  United 
States  Statutes  at  Large,  vol.  viii.  p.  154. 


IN   THE   BARBARY   STATES. 


93 


sels,  and  even 'vessels  of  war,  should  be  restored 
to  their  owners.1 

As  early  as  1787,  a  treaty  of  a  more  liberal 
character  had  been  entered  into  with  Morocco, 
which  was  confirmed  •  in  1795,2  at  the  price  of 
twenty  thousand  dollars  ;  while,  by  a  treaty  witli 
Spain,  in  1799,  this  slave- trading  empire  expressly 
declared  its  desire  that  the  name  of  slavery  might  be 
effaced  from  the  memory  of  man.3 

But  these  governments  were  barbarous,  faith- 
less, and  re- 
gardless of 
the  duties  of 
humanity  and 
justice.  Trea- 
ties with  them 


were  evanes- 
cent. As  in 
the  days  of 
Charles  the 
Second,  they 

seemed  made  merely  to  be  broken.  They  were 
observed  only  so  long  as  money  was  derived  under 
their  stipulations.  Our  growing  commerce  was 

1  Article  6 ;  United  States  Statutes  at  Large,   vol.  viii.  p.   157. 
This  treaty  has  two  dates,  August,  1797,  and  March,  1799.     William 
Eaton  and  James  Leander  Cathcart  were  the  agents  of  the  United 
States  at  the  latter  date. 

2  Lyman's  Diplomacy,  vol.  ii.  p.  350 ;  United  States  Statutes  at 
Large,  vol.  viii.  p.  100. 

3  History  of  the  War  with  Tripoli,  p.  83. 


94  WHITE  SLAVERY 

soon  again  fatally  vexed  by  the  Barbary  corsairs, 
who  now  compelled  even  the  ships  of  our  navy  to 
submit  to  peculiar  indignities.  In  1801,  the  Bey  of 
Tripoli  formally  declared  war  against  the  United 
States,  and  in  token  thereof  "  our  flagstaff  [before 
the  consulate]  was  chopped  down  six  feet  from 
the  ground,  and  left  reclining  on  the  terrace." l 
Our  citizens  once  more  became  the  prize  of  man- 
stealers.  Colonel  Humphreys,  now  at  home  in 
retirement,  was  aroused.  In  an  address  to  the 
public,  he  called  again  for  united  action,  saying, 
"  Americans  of  the  United  States,  your  fellow- 
citizens  are  in  fetters!  Can  there  be  but  one 
feeling  ?  Where  are  the  gallant  remains  of  the 
race  who  fought  for  freedom  ?  Where  the  glori- 
ous heirs  of  their  patriotism  ?  Witt  t/iere  never  be 
a  truce  between  political  parties?  Or  must  it  forever 
be  the  fate  of  FREE  STATES,  that  the  soft  voice  of 
union  should  be  drowned  in  the  Jioarse  clamors  of  dis- 
cord ?  No  !  Let  every  friend  of  blessed  humanity 
and  sacred  freedom  entertain  a  better  hope  and 
confidence."2  Colonel  Humphreys  was  not  a 
statesman  only ;  he  was  known  as  a  poet  also. 
And  in  this  character  he  made  another  appeal  to 
his  country.  In  a  poem  on  "  The  Future  Glory  of 
the  United  States,"  he  breaks  forth  into  an  indig- 
nant comdemnation  of  slavery,  which,  whatever 


1  Lyman's  Diplomacy,  vol.  ii.  p.  384. 

2  Miscellaneous  Works  of  David  Humphreys,  p.  75. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  95 

may  be  the  merits  of  its  verse,  should  not  be 
omitted  here. 

Teach  me  curst  slavery's  cruel  woes  to  paint, 
Beneath  whose  weight  our  captured  freemen  faint ! 

Where  am  I !    Heavens  !  what  mean  these  dolorous  cries  ? 

And  what  these  horrid  scenes  that  round  me  rise  ? 

Heard  ye  the  groans,  those  messengers  of  pain  ? 

Heard  ye  the  clanking  of  the  captive's  chain  ? 

Heard  ye  your  free-born  sons  their  fate  deplore, 

Pale  in  their  chains  and  laboring  at  the  oar  ? 

Saw  ye  the  dungeon,  in  whose  blackest  cell, 

That  house  of  woe,  your  friends,  your  children,  dwell?  — 

Or  saw  ye  those  who  dread  the  torturing  hour, 

Crushed  by  the  rigors  of  a  tyrant's  power  ? 

Saw  ye  the  shrinking  slave,  th'  uplifted  lash, 

The  frowning  butcher,  and  the  reddening  gash  ? 

Saiv  ye  the  fresh  blood  ichere  it  bubbling  broke 

From  purple  scars,  beneath  the  grinding  stroke  ? 

Saw  ye  the  naked  limbs  writhed  to  and  fro, 

In  wild  contortions  of  convulsing  woe  ? 

Felt  ye  the  blood,  with  pangs  alternate  rolled, 

Thrill  through  your  veins  and  freeze  with  deathlike  cold, 

Or  fire,  as  down  the  tear  of  pity  stole, 

Your  manly  breasts,  and  harrow  up  the  soul  ? 1 

The  people  and  government  responded  to  this 
voice.  And  here  commenced  those  early  deeds 
by  which  our  navy  became  known  in  Europe. 
The  frigate  Philadelphia,  through  a  reverse  of 
shipwreck  rather  than  war,  falling  into  the  hands 
of  the  Tripolitans,  was,  by  a  daring  act  of  Deca- 
tur,  burned  under  the  guns  of  the  enemy.  Other 
feats  of  hardihood  ensued.  A  romantic  expedi- 
tion by  General  Eaton,  from  Alexandria,  in 

1  Miscellaneous  Works  of  David  Humphreys,  pp.  52,  53. 


96  WHITE   SLAVERY 

Egypt,  across  the  desert  of  Libya,  captured 
Derne.  Three  several  times  Tripoli  was  at- 
tacked, and,  at  last,  on  the  3d  of  June,  1805,  en- 
tered into  a  treaty,  by  which  it  was  stipulated 
that  the  United  States  should  pay  sixty  thousand 
dollars  for  the  freedom  of  two  hundred  American 
slaves  ;  and  that,  in  the  event  of  future  war  be- 
tween the  two  countries,  prisoners  should  not  be 
reduced  to  slavery,  but  should  be  exchanged  rank 


for  rank ;  and  if  there  were  any  deficiency  on 
either  side,  it  should  be  made  up  by  the  payment 
of  five  hundred  Spanish  dollars  for  each  captain, 
three  hundred  dollars  for  each  mate  and  super- 
cargo, and  one  hundred  dollars  for  each  seaman.1 
Thus  did  our  country,  after  successes  not  without 
what  is  called  the  glory  of  arms,  again  purchase 
by  money  the  emancipation  of  her  white  citizens. 

1  United  States  Statutes  at  Large,  vol.  viii.  p.  2H  ;  Lyman's  Di- 
plomacy, vol.  ii.  p.  388- 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  97 

The  power  of  Tripoli  was,  however,  incon- 
siderable. That  of  Algiers  was  more  formidable, 
It  is  not  a  little  curious  that  the  largest  ship  of 
this  slave-trading  state  was  the  Crescent,  of  thirty- 
four  guns,  built  in  New  Hampshire  ;  }  though  it  is 
hardly  to  the  credit  of  our  sister  State  that  the  Jllge- 
rine  power  derived  such  important  support  from  her. 
The  lawlessness  of  the  corsair  again  broke  forth 
by  the  seizure,  in  1812,  of  the  brig  Edwin,  of 
Salem,  and  the  enslavement  of  her  crew.  All  the 
energies  of  the  country  were  at  this  time  enlisted 
in  war  with  Great  Britain  ;  but,  even  amidst  the 
anxieties  of  this  gigantic  contest,  the  voice  of 
these  captives  was  heard,  awakening  a  corre- 
sponding sentiment  throughout  the  land,  until  the 
government  was  prompted  to  seek  their  release. 
Through  Mr.  Noah,  recently  appointed  consul  at 
Tunis,  it  offered  to  purchase  their  freedom  at 
three  thousand  dollars  a  head.2  The  answer  of 
the  Dey,  repeated  on  several  occasions,  was,  that 
"  not  for  two  millions  of  dollars  would  he  sell  his 
American  slaves."  3  The  timely  treaty  of  Ghent, 
in  1815,  establishing  peace  with  Great  Britain, 
left  us  at  liberty  to  deal  with  this  enslaver  of  our 
countrymen.  A  naval  force  was  promptly  de- 
spatched to  the  Mediterranean,  under  Commo- 
dore Bainbridge  and  Commodore  Decatur.  The 

1  History  of  the  War  between  the  United  States  and  Tripoli,  p.  88. 

2  Noah's  Travels,  p.  69. 

3  Ibid.  p.  144 ;  National  Intelligencer  of  March  7, 1815. 


98  WHITE  SLAVERY 

rapidity  of  their  movements  and  their  striking 
success  had  the  desired  effect.  In  June,  1815,  a 
treaty  was  extorted  from  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  by 
which,  after  abandoning  all  claim  to  tribute  in 
any  form,  he  delivered  his  American  captives,  ten 
in  number,  without  any  ransom ;  and  stipulated, 
that  hereafter  no  Americans  should  be  made 
slaves  or  forced  to  hard  labor,  and  still  further, 
that  "any  Christians  whatever,  captives  in  Al- 
giers," making  their  escape  and  taking  refuge  on 
board  an  American  ship  of  war,  should  be  safe 
from  all  requisition  or  reclamation.1 

It  is  related  of  Decatur,  that  he  walked  his  deck 
with  impatient  earnestness,  awaiting  the  promised 
signature  of  the  treaty.  "  Is  the  treaty  signed  ?  " 
he  cried  to  the  captain  of  the  port  and  the  Swe- 
dish consul,  as  they  reached  the  Guerriere  with  a 
white  flag  of  truce.  "  It  is,"  replied  the  Swede  ; 
and  the  treaty  was  placed  in  Decatur's  hands. 
"  Are  the  prisoners  in  the  boat  ?  "  "  They  are." 
"  Every  one  of  them  ?  "  "  Every  .one,  sir."  The 
captive  Americans  now  came  forward  to  greet 
and  bless  their  deliverer.2  Surely  this  moment 
—  when  he  looked  upon  his  emancipated  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  thought  how  much  he  had  con- 
tributed to  overthrow  the  relentless  system  of 
bondage  under  which  they  had  groaned  —  must 

1  United  States  Statutes  at  Large,  vol.  viii.  p.  224 ;  Lyman's  Di- 
plomacy, vol.  ii.  p.  376. 

2  Mackenzie's  Life  of  Decatur,  p.  268. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  99 

have  been  one  of  the  sweetest  in  the  life  of  that 
hardy  son  of  the  sea.  But  should  I  not  say,  even 
here,  that  there  is  now  a  citizen  of  Massachu- 
setts, who,  without  army  or  navy,  by  a  simple  act 
of  self-renunciation,  has  given  freedom  to  a  larger 
number  of  Christian  American  slaves  than  was 
done  by  the  sword  of  Decatur  ? 

Thus,  not  by  money,  but  by  arms,  was  emancipa- 
tion this  time  secured.  The  country  was  grateful 
for  the  result ;  though  the  poor  freedmen,  ingulfed 
in  the  unknown  wastes  of  ocean,  on  their  glad 
passage  home,  were  never  able  to  mingle  joys 
with  their  fellow-citizens.  They  were  lost  in  the 
Epervier,  of  which  no  trace  has  ever  appeared. 
Nor  did  the  people  feel  the  melancholy  mockery 
in  the  conduct  of  the  government,  which,  having 
weakly  declared  that  it  "  was  not  in  any  sense 
founded  on  the  Christian  religion/7  now  expressly 
confined  the  protecting  power  of  its  flag  to  fugi- 
tive "  Christians,  captives  in  Algiers/7  leaving 
slaves  of  another  faith  to  be  snatched  as  between 
the  horns  of  the  altar,  and  returned  to  the  con- 
tinued horrors  of  their  lot. 

The  success  of  the  American  arms  was  followed 
speedily  by  a  more  signal  triumph  of  Great 
Britain,  acting  generously  in  behalf  of  all  the 
Christian  powers.  Her  expedition  was  debated, 
perhaps  prompted,  in  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
where,  after  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon,  the  bril- 


100  WHITE   SLAVERY 

liant  representatives  of  the  different  states  of 
Europe,  in  the  presence  of  the  monarchs  of  Aus- 
tria, Prussia,  and  Russia,  were  assembled  to  con- 
sider the  evils  proper  to  be  remedied  by  joint 
action,  and  to  adjust  the  disordered  balance  of 
empire.  Among  many  high  concerns,  here  enter- 
tained, was  the  project  of  a  crusade  against  the 
Barbary  States,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  com- 
plete abolition  of  Christian  slavery  there  prac- 
tised. For  this  purpose,  it  was  proposed  to  form 
"  a  holy  league."  This  was  earnestly  enforced  by 
a  memoir  from  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  the  same  who 
foiled  Napoleon  at  Acre,  and  who  at  this  time 
was  president  of  an  association  called  the 
"Knights  Liberators  of  the  White  Slaves  in 
Africa," — in  our  day  it  might  be  called  an  Abo- 
lition Society,  —  thus  adding  to  the  doubtful  lau- 
rels of  war  the  true  glory  of  striving  for  the 
freedom  of  his  fellow-men.1 

This  project,  though  not  adopted"  by  the  Con- 
gress, awakened  a  generous  echo  in  the  public 
mind.  Various  advocates  appeared  in  its  behalf; 
and  what  the  Congress  failed  to  undertake  was 
now  especially  urged  upon  Great  Britain,  by  the 
agents  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  who  insisted,  that, 

1  Memoire  sur  la  Necessite  et  les  Moyens  de  faire  cesser  les  Pira- 
teries  des  Etats  Barbaresques.  Re9u,  considere,  et  adopte  a  Paris 
en  Septembre,  a  Turin  le  14  Octobre,  1814,  a  Vienne  durant  le  Con- 
gres.  Par  M.  Sidney  Smith.  See  Quarterly  Beview,  vol.  xv.  p.  140, 
where  this  is  noticed.  Schoell,  Histoire  des  Traites  de  Paix,  torn, 
xi.  p.  402. 


IN  THE  BARBARY   STATES.  101 

because  this  nation  had  abolished  the  negro  slave 
trade,  it  was  her  duty  to  put  an  end  to  the  slavery 
of  the  whites.1 

A.  disgraceful  impediment  seemed  at  first  to 
interfere.  There  was  a  common  belief  that  the 
obstructions  of  the  Barbary  States,  in  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  Mediterranean,  were  advantageous  to 
British  commerce,  by  thwarting  and  strangling 
that  of  other  countries  ;  and  that  therefore  Great 
Britain,  ever  anxious  for  commercial  supremacy, 
would  rather  encourage  them  than  seek  their 
overthrow  —  the  love  of  trade  prevailing  over 
the  love  of  man.2  This  suggestion  of  a  sordid 
selfishness,  which  was  willing  to  coin  money  out 
of  the  lives  and  liberties  of  fellow- Christians,  was 
soon  answered. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1816,  Lord  Ex- 
mouth,  who,  as  Sir  Edward  Pellew,  had  already 
acquired'  distinction  in  the  British  navy,  was 
despatched  with  a  squadron  to  Algiers.  By  his 
general  orders,  bearing  date,  Boyne,  Port  Mahon, 
March  21,  1816,  he  announced  the  object  of  his 
expedition  as  follows  :  — 

"  He  has  been  instructed  and  directed  by  his 

1  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  451 ;  Osier's  Life  of  Exmouth, 
p.  302 ;  Mackenzie's  Life  of  Decatur,  p.  263. 

2  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xv.   p.   145 ;   Edinburgh  Review,  vol. 
xxvi.  p.  449,  noticing  "  A  Letter  to  a  Member  of  Parliament,  on  the 
Slavery  of  the  Christians  at  Algiers.    By  Walter  Croker,  Esq.,  of 
the  Royal  Navy.    London,  1816."    Schoell,  Trails  de  Paix,  torn, 
xi.  p.  402. 


102  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Royal  Highness,  the  Prince  Regent,  to  proceed 
with  the  fleet  to  Algiers,  and  there  make  certain 
arrangements  for  diminishing,  at  least,  the  piratical 
excursions  of  the  Barbary  States,  by  which  tJwu- 
sands  of  our  fellow-creatures,  innocently  following  their 
commercial  pursuits,  have  been  dragged  into  tJie  most 
wretched  and  revolting  state  of  slavery. 

"  The  commander-in-chief  is  confident  that  this 
outrageous  system  of  piracy  and  slavery  rouses  in  com- 
mon the  same  spirit  of  indignation  which  he  himself 
feels  ;  and  should  the  government  of  Algiers  refuse 
the  reasonable  demands  he  bears  from  the  Prince 
Regent,  he  doubts  not  but  the  flag  will  be  honor- 
ably and  zealously  supported  by  every  officer  and 
man  under  his  command,  in  his  endeavors  to  pro- 
cure the  acceptation  of  them  by  force  ;  and  if 
force  must  be  resorted  to,  we  have  the  consolation  of 
knowing  that  we  fight  in  t/ie  sacred  cause  of  humanity, 
and  cannot  fail  of  success."  * 

The  moderate  object  of  his  mission  was  readily 
obtained.  "  Arrangements  for  diminishing  the 
piratical  excursions  of  the  Barbary  States  "  were 
established.  Certain  Ionian  slaves,  claimed  as 
British  subjects,  were  released,  and  peace  was 
secured  for  Naples  and  Sardinia  —  the  former 
paying  a  ransom  of  five  hundred  dollars,  and  the 
latter  of  three  hundred  dollars,  a  head,  for  their 
subjects  liberated  from  bondage.  This  was  at 

1  Osier's  Life  of  Exmouth,  p.  297. 


IN   THE   BARB  ART  STATES.  103 

Algiers.  Lord  Exmouth  next  proceeded  to  Tunis 
and  Tripoli,  where,  acting  beyond  his  instructions, 
he  obtained  from  both  these  piratical  govern- 
ments a  promise  to  abolish  Christian  slavery 
within  their  dominions.  In  one  of  his  letters  on 
this  event,  he  says  that,  in  pressing  these  conces- 
sions, he  "  acted  solely  on  his  own  responsibility 
and  without  orders,  the  causes  and  reasoning  on 
which,  upon  general  principles,  may  be  defensible  ; 
but,  as  applying  to  our  own  country,  may  not  be 
borne  out,  the  old  mercantile  interest  being  against 
it" l  A  similar  distrust  had  been  excited  in 
another  age  by  a  similar  achievement.  Admiral 
Blake,  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  after  his  attack 
upon  Tunis,  writing  to  his  government  at  home, 
said,  "  And  now,  seeing  it  hath  pleased  God  soe 
signally  to  justify  us  herein,  I  hope  his  highness 
will  not  be  offended  at  it,  nor  any  who  regard 
duly  the  honor  of  our  nation,  although  I  expect  to 
have  the  clamors  of  interested  men"  2  Thus,  more 
than  once  in  the  history  of  these  efforts  to  abolish 
White  Slavery,  did  commerce,  the  daughter  of 
freedom,  fall  under  the  foul  suspicion  of  disloyalty 
to  her  parent ! 

Lord  Exmouth  did  injustice  to  the  moral  sense 
of  England.  His  conduct  was  sustained  and 
applauded,  not  only  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but 
by  the  public  at  large.  He  was  soon  directed  to 

1  Osier's  Life  of  Exmouth,  p.  303. 

2  Thurloe's  State  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  390. 


104  WHITE  SLAVERY 

return  to  Algiers, — which  had  failed  to  make 
any  general  renunciation  of  the  custom  of  enslav- 
ing Christians,  —  to  extort  by  force  such  a  stipu- 
lation. This  expedition  is  regarded  by  British 
historians  with  peculiar  pride.  In  all  the  annals 
of  their  triumphant  navy,  there  is  none  in  which 
the  barbarism  of  war  seems  so  much  "  to  smooth 
its  wrinkled  front."  With  a  fleet  complete  at  all 
points,  the  Admiral  set  sail  July  25,  1816,  on 
what  was  deemed  a  holy  war.  With  five  line-of- 
battle  ships,  five  heavy  frigates,  four  bomb  vessels, 
and  five  gun  brigs,  besides  a  Dutch  fleet  of  five 
frigates  and  a  corvette,  under  Admiral  Van  de 
Gapellan,  —  who,  on  learning  the  object  of  the 
expedition,  solicited  and  obtained  leave  to  coop- 
erate, —  on  the  27th  of  August  he  anchored  be- 
fore the  formidable  fortifications  of  Algiers.  It 
would  not  be  agreeable  or  instructive  to  dwell 
on  the  scene  of  desolation  and  blood  which  en- 
sued. Before  night  the  fleet  fired,  besides  shells 
and  rockets,  one  hundred  and  eighteen  tons  of 
powder,  and  fifty  thousand  shot,  weighing  more 
than  five  hundred  tons.  The  citadel  and  massive 
batteries  of  Algiers  were  shattered  and  crumbled 
to  ruins.  The  storehouses,  ships,  and  gun  boats 
were  in  flames,  while  the  blazing  lightnings  of  bat- 
tle were  answered,  in  a  storm  of  signal  fury,  by 
the  lightnings  of  heaven.  The  power  of  the 
Great  Slave  Dealer  was  humbled. 

The  terms  of  submission  were  announced  to  his 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES. 


105 


fleet  by  the  Admiral  in  an  order,  dated,  Queen 
Charlotte,  Algiers  Bay,  August  30,  1816,  which 
may  be  read  with  truer  pleasure  than  any  in 
military  or  naval  history. 

"  The  commander-in-chief,"  he  said,  "  is  happy 
to  inform  the  fleet  of  the  final  termination  of  their 
strenuous  exertions,  by  the  signature  of  peace, 
confirmed  under  a  salute  of  twenty-one  guns,  on 


the  following  conditions,  dictated  by  his  Royal 
Highness,  the  Prince  Regent  of  England. 

"  First.  THE  ABOLITION  OF  CHRISTIAN  SLAVERY 
FOREVER. 

"  Second.  The  delivery  to  my  flag  of  all  slaves  in 
the  dominions  of  tJie  Dey,  to  whatever  nation  they  may 
belong,  at  noon  to-morrow. 

"  Third.  To  deliver  also  to  my  flag  all  money 
received  by  him  for  the  redemption  of  slaves 


106 


WHITE   SLAVERY 


since  the   commencement  of  this  year,   at  noon 
also  to-morrow." 

On  the  next  day,  twelve  hundred  slaves  were 
emancipated,  making,  with  those  liberated  in  his 
earlier  expedition,  more  than  three  thousand, 
whom,  by  address  or  force,  Lord  Exmouth  had 
delivered  from  bondage.1 

Thus  ended  White  Slavery  in  the  Barbary 
States.  It  had  already  died  out  in  Morocco.  It 
had  been  quietly  renounced  by  Tripoli  and  Tunis. 
Its  last  retreat  was  Algiers,  whence  it  was  driven 
amidst  the  thunder  of  the  British  cannon. 

Signal  honors  now  awaited  the  Admiral.  He 
was  elevated  to  a  new  rank  in  the  peerage,  and 

on  his  coat  of  arms 
was  emblazoned  a 
figure  never  before 
known  in  heraldry 
—  a  Christian  slave 
Jwlding  aloft  the  cross 
and  dropping  his  broken 
fetters?  From  the  offi- 
cers of  the  squadron 
he  received  a  costly 
service  of  plate,  with 
an  inscription,  in  testimony  of  "  the  memorable  vic- 
tory gained  at  Algiers,  where  the  great  cause  of 

1  Osier's  Life  of  Exmouth,  p.   334;    British   Annual  Register, 
(1816,)  vol.  Iviii.  pp.  97-106  ;  Shaler's  Sketches,  pp.  279-294. 
*  Osier's  Life  of  Exmouth,  p.  340. 


IN  THE  BAEBARY   STATES.  107 

Christian  freedom  was  bravely  fought  and  nobly  accom- 
plished"1 But  higher  far  than  honor  were  the 
rich  personal  satisfactions  which  he  derived  from 
contemplating  the  nature  of  the  cause  in  which 
he  had  been  enlisted.  In  his  despatch  to  the 
government,  describing  the  battle,  and  written  at 
the  time,  he  says,  in  words  which  may  be  felt  by 
others,  engaged,  like  him,  against  slavery,  "In 
all  the  vicissitudes  of  a  long  life  of  public  service, 
no  circumstance  has  ever  produced  on  my  mind 
such  impressions  of  gratitude  as  the  event  of  yes- 
terday. To  have  been  one  of  the  humble  instruments 
in  the  hands  of  divine  Providence  for  bringing  to 
reason  a  ferocious  government,  and  destroying  forever 
the  insufferable  and  horrid  system  of  Christian  slavery, 
can  never  cease  to  be  a  source  of  delight  and  heartfelt 
comfort  to  every  individual  happy  enough  to  be  em- 
ployed in  it."2 

The  reverses  of  Algiers  did  not  end  here. 
Christian  slavery  was  abolished ;  but,  in  1830, 
the  •  insolence  of  this  barbarian  government 
aroused  the  vengeance  of  France  to  take  military 
possession  of  the  whole  country.  Algiers  capitu- 
lated, the  Dey  abdicated,  and  this  considerable 
state  became  a  French  colony. 

Thus  I  have  endeavored  to  present  what  I 
could  glean  in  various  fields  on  the  history  of 

1  Osier's  Life  of  Exmouth,  p.  342. 

2  Ibid.  432  ;  Shaler's  Sketches  of  Algiers,  p.  382. 


108  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Christian  Slavery  in  the  Barbary  States.  I  have 
often  employed  the  words  of  others,  as  they 
seemed  best  calculated  to  convey  the  exact  idea 
of  the  scene,  incident,  or  sentiment  which  I 
wished  to  preserve.  So  doing,  I  have  occupied 
much  time ;  but  I  may  find  my  apology  in  the 
words  of  an  English  chronicler.1  "  Algier,"  he 
says,  "were  altogether  unworthy  so  long  a  dis- 
course, were  not  the  unworthinesse  worthy  our  con- 
sideration. I  meane  the  cruell  abuse  of  the  Chris- 
tian name,  which  let  us  for  inciting  our  zeale  and 
exciting  our  charitie  and  thankfulness  more  deep- 
ly weigh,  to  releeve  those  in  miseries,  as  we  may, 
with  our  paynes,  prayers,  purses,  and  all  the  best 
meditations." 

III.  It  is  by  a  natural  transition  that  I  am 
now  conducted  to  the  inquiry  into  the  true  charac- 
ter of  the  evil  whose  history  has  been  traced. 
And  here  I  shall  be  brief. 

The  slavery  of  Christians  by  the  Barbary  States 
is  regarded  as  an  unquestionable  outrage  upon 
humanity  and  justice.  Nobody  hesitates  in  this 
judgment.  Our  liveliest  sympathies  attend  these 
white  brethren  —  torn  from  their  homes,  the  ties 
of  family  and  friendship  rudely  severed,  parent 
separated  from  child  and  husband  from  wife,  ex- 
posed at  public  sale  like  cattle,  and  dependent, 

1  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  vol.  ii.  p.  1565. 


IN   THE   BARBAEY  STATES.  109 

like  cattle,  upon  the  uncertain  will  of  an  arbi- 
trary taskmaster.  We  read  of  a  "  gentleman " 
who  was  compelled  to  be  the  valet  of  the  barba- 
rian Emperor  of  Morocco  ; l  and  Calderon,  the 
pride  of  the  Spanish  stage,  has  depicted  the  mis- 
erable fate  of  a  Portuguese  prince,  condemned  by 
infidel  Moors  to  carry  water  in  a  garden.  But 
the  lowly  in  condition  had  their  unrecorded  sor- 
rows also,  whose  sum  total  must  swell  to  a  fearful 
amount.  Who  can  tell  how  many  hearts  have 
been  wrung  by  the  pangs  of  separation,  how 
many  crushed  by  the  comfortless  despair  of  in- 
terminable bondage  ?  "  Speaking  as  a  Chris- 
tian/7 says  the  good  Catholic  father  who  has 
chronicled  much  of  this  misery,  "  if  on  the  earth 
there  can  be  any  condition  which,  in  its  character 
and  evils,  may  represent  in  any  manner  the  dol- 
orous passion  of  the  Son  of  God,  (which  exceed- 
ed all  evils  and  torments,  because  by  it  the  Lord 
suffered  every  kind  of  evil  and  affliction,)  it  is, 
beyond  question  and  doubt,  none  other  than  sla- 
very and  captivity  in  Algiers  and  Barbary,  whose 
infinite  evils,  terrible  torments,  miseries  without 
number,  afflictions  without  migitation,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  comprehend  in  a  brief  span  of  time."2 

1  Braithwaite's  Revolutions  of  Morocco,  p.  233 ;  Noah's  Travels, 
p.  367. 

2  Haedo,  Historia,  pp.  139,  140.    Besides  the  illustrations  of  the 
hardships  of  White  Slavery  already  introduced,  I  refer  briefly  to  the 
following  :  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xxvi.  pp.  452-454 ;  Croker's  Let- 
ter, pp.  11-13 ;  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xv.  p.  145 ;  Eaton's  Life,  p. 
100 ;  Noah's  Travels,  p.  366. 


110  WHITE  SLAVERY 

When  we  consider  the  author's  character,  as  a 
father  of  the  Catholic  Church,  it  will  be  felt  that 
language  can  no  further  go. 

In  nothing  are  the  impiety  and  blasphemy  of 
this  custom  more  apparent  than  in  the  auctions  of 
human  beings,  where  men  were  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder.  Through  the  personal  experience  of  a 
young  English  merchant,  Abraham  Brown,  after- 
wards a  settler  in  Massachusetts,  we  may  learn 
how  these  were  conducted.  In  1655,  before  the 
liberating  power  of  Cromwell  had  been  acknowl- 
edged, he  was  captured,  together  with  a  whole 
crew,  and  carried  into  Sallee.  His  own  words,  in 
his  memoirs  still  preserved,  will  best  tell  his 
story.1  "On  landing,"  he  says,  "an  exceeding 
great  company  of  most  dismal  spectators  were 
led  to  behold  us  in  our  captivated  condition. 
There  was  liberty  for  all  sorts  to  come  and  look 
on  us,  that  whosoever  had  a  mind  to  buy  any  of 
us  on  the  day  appointed  for  our  sale  together  in 
the  market,  might  see,  as  I  may  say,  what  they 
would  like  to  have  for  their  money  ;  whereby  we 
had  too  many  comfortless  visitors,  both  from  the 
town  and  country,  one  saying  he  would  buy  this 
man,  and  the  other  that.  To  comfort  us,  we  were 
told  by  the  Christian  slaves  already  there,  if  we 
met  with  such  and  such  patrons,  our  usage  would 
not  be  so  bad  as  we  supposed;  though,  indeed,  our 

2  MS.  Memoirs. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  Ill 

men  found  the  usage  of  the  best  bad  enough.  Fresh 
victuals  and  bread  were  supplied,  I  suppose  to  feed 
us  up  for  the  market,  that  we  might  be  in  some 
good  plight  against  the  day  we  were  to  be  sold. 
And  now  I  come  to  speak  of  our  being  sold  into 
this  doleful  slavery.  It  was  doleful  in  respect  to 
the  time  and  manner.  As  to  the  time,  it  was  on 
our  Sabbath  day,  in  the  morning,  about  the  time 
the  people  of  God  were  about  to  enjoy  the  liberty 
of  God's  house  ;  this  was  the  time  our  bondage 
was  confirmed.  Again,  it  was  sad  in  respect  to 
the  manner  of  our  selling.  Being  all  of  us 
brought  into  the  market-place,  we  were  led  about, 
two  or  three  at  a  time,  in  the  midst  of  a  great  con- 
course of  people,  both  from  the  town  and  country, 
who  had  a  full  sight  of  us,  and  if  that  did  not 
satisfy,  they  would  come  and  feel  of  your  hand, 
and  look  into  your  mouth  to  see  whether  you  are 
sound  in  health,  or  to  see,  by  the  hardness  of 
your  hand,  whether  you  have  been  a  laborer  or 
not.  The  manner  of  buying  is  this :  He  that  bids 
the  greatest  price  hath  you;  they  bidding  one 
upon  another  until  the  highest  has  you  for  a 
slave,  whoever  he  is,  or  wherever  he  dwells.  As 
concerning  myself,  being  brought  to  the  market 
in  the  weakest  condition  of  any  of  our  men,  I 
was  led  forth  among  the  cruel  multitude  to  be 
sold.  As  yet  being  undiscovered  what  I  was,  I 
was  like  to  have  been  sold  at  a  very  low  rate,  not 
above  <£15  sterling,  whereas  our  ordinary  seamen 


112 


WHITE  SLAVERY 


were  sold  for  <£30  and  .£35  sterling,  and  two 
boys  were  sold  for  ,£40  apiece  ;  and  being  in 
this  sad  posture  led  up  and  down  at  least  one 
hour  and  a  half,  during  which  time  a  Dutchman, 
that  was  our  carpenter,  discovered  me  to  some 
Jews,  they  increased  from  .£15  to  <£75,  which 
was  the  price  my  patron  gave  for  me,  being  300 

ducats ;  and 
had  I  not  been 
so  weakened, 
and  in  these 
rags,  (indeed, 
I  made  myself 
more  so  than  I 
was,  for  some- 
times, as  they 
led  me,  I  pre- 
tended I  could 

not  go,  and  did  often  sit  down ;)  I  say,  had  not 
these  things  been,  in  all  likelihood  I  had  been 
sold  for  as  much  again  in  the  market,  and  thus  I 
had  been  dearer,  and  the  difficulty  greater  to  be 
redeemed.  During  the  time  of  my  being  led  up 
and  down  the  market,  I  was  possessed  with  the 
greatest  fears,  not  knowing  who  my  patron  might 
be.  I  feared  it  might  be  one  from  the  country, 
who  would  carry  me  where  I  could  not  return,  or 
it  might  be  one  in  and  about  Sallee,  of  which  we 
had  sad  accounts;  and  many  other  distracting 
thoughts  I  had.  And  though  I  was  like  to  have 


IN  THE   BARBABY   STATES.  113 

been  sold  unto  the  most  cruel  man  in  Sallee,  there 
being  but  one  piece  of  eight  between  him  and  my 
patron,  yet  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  cause  him  to 
buy  me,  of  whom  I  may  speak,  to  the  glory  of 
God,  as  the  kindest  man  in  the  place." 

This  is  the  story  of  a  respectable  person,  little 
distinguished  in  the  world.  But  the  slave  dealer 
applied  his  inexorable  system  without  distinction 
of  persons.  The  experiences  of  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul  did  not  differ  from  those  of  Abraham 
Brown.  That  eminent  character,  admired,  be- 
loved and  worshipped  by  large  circles  of  man- 
kind, has  also  left  a  record  of  his  sale  as  a  slave.1 
"  Their  proceedings,"  he  says,  "  at  our  sale  were 
as  follows :  After  we  had  been  stripped,  they  gave 
to  each  one  of  us  a  pair  of  drawers,  a  linen  coat, 
with  a  cap,  and  paraded  us  through  the  city  of 
Tunis,  where  they  had  come  expressly  to  sell  us. 
Having  made  us  make  five  or  six  turns  through 
the  city,  with  the  chain  at  our  necks,  they  con- 
ducted us  back  to  the  boat,  that  the  merchants 
might  come  to  see  who  could  eat  well,  and  who 
not ;  and  to  show  that  our  wounds  were  not  mor- 
tal. This  done,  they  took  us  to  the  public  square, 
where  the  merchants  came  to  visit  us,  precisely  as 
they  do  at  the  purchase  of  a  horse  or  of  cattle, 
making  us  open  the  mouth  to  see  our  teeth,  feel- 
ing our  sides,  searching  our  wounds,  and  making 


Biographic  Universelle,  art.  Vincent  de  Paul. 


114  WHITE  SLAVERY 

us  move  our  steps,  trot  and  run,  then  lift  bur- 
dens, and  then  wrestle,  in  order  to  see  the 
strength  of  each,  and  a  thousand  other  sorts 
of  brutalities." 

And  here  we  may  refer  again  to  Cervantes, 
whose  pen  was  dipped  in  his  own  dark  experi- 
ence. In  his  Life  in  Algiers,  he  has  displayed  the 
horrors  of  the  white  slave  market.  The  public 
crier  exposes  for  sale  a  father  and  mother  with 
their  two  children.  They  are  to  be  sold  separate- 
ly, or,  according  to  the  language  of  our  day,  "  in 
lots  to  suit  purchasers."  The  father  is  resigned, 
confiding  in  God ;  the  mother  sobs ;  while  the 
children,  ignorant  of  the  inhumanity  of  men, 
show  an  instinctive  trust  in  the  constant  and 
wakeful  protection  of  their  parents — now,  alas! 
impotent  to  shield  them  from  dire  calamity.  A 
merchant,  inclining  to  purchase  one  of  the  'little 
ones,"  and  wishing  to  ascertain  his  bodily  condi- 
tion, causes  him  to  open  his  mouth.  The  child, 
still  ignorant  of  the  doom  which  awaits  him, 
imagines  that  the  inquirer  is  about  to  extract  a 
tooth,  and,  assuring  him  that  it  does  not  ache, 
begs  him  to  desist.  The  merchant,  in  other  re- 
spects an  estimable  man,  pays  one  hundred  and 
thirty  dollars  for  the  youngest  child,  and  the  sale 
is  completed.  Thus  a  human  being  —  one  of 
those  children  of  whom  it  has  been  said,  "  Of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  "  —  is  profanely 


IN  THE   BARBARY  STATES.  115 

treated  as  an  article  of  merchandise,  and  torn  far 
away  from  a  mother's  arms  and  a  father's  support. 
The  hardening  influence  of  custom  has  steeled 
the  merchant  into  insensibility  to  this  violation 
of  humanity  and  justice,  this  laceration  of  sacred 
ties,  this  degradation  of  the  image  of  God.  The 
unconscious  heartlessness  of  the  slave  dealer,  and 
the  anguish  of  his  victims,  are  depicted  in  the 
dialogue  which  ensues  after  the  sale.1 


1  This  translation  is  borrowed  from  Sismondi's  Literature  of  the 
South  of  Europe,  by  Roscoe,  vol.  iii.  p.  381.  There  is  a  letter  of 
"  John  Dunton,  Mariner,"  addressed  to  the  English  Admiralty  in 
1637,  which  might  furnish  the  foundation  of  a  similar  scene.  "  For 
my  only  son,"  he  says,  "  is  now  a  slave  in  Algier,  and  but  ten  years 
of  age,  and  like  to  be  lost  forever,  without  God's  great  mercy  and 
the  King's  clemency,  which,  I  hope,  may  be  in  some  manner  ob- 
tained." —  Osborne's  Voyages,  vol.  ii.  p.  492. 


116  WHITE   SLAVERY 

MERCHANT. 
Come  hither,  child ;  'tis  time  to  go  to  rest. 

JUAN. 

Signor,  I  will  not  leave  my  mother  here, 
To  go  with  any  one. 

MOTHER. 

Alas  !  my  child,  thou  art  no  longer  mine, 
But  his  who  bought  thee. 

JUAN. 

What !  then,  have  you,  mother, 
Forsaken  me  f 

MOTHER. 

0  Heavens  !  how  cruel  are  ye  ! 

MERCHANT. 
Come,  hasten,  boy. 

JUAN. 

Will  you  go  with  me,  brother  ? 

FRANCISCO. 

1  cannot,  Juan,  'tis  not  in  my  power  ;  — 
May  Heaven  protect  you,  Juan  ! 

MOTHER. 
O  my  child, 
My  joy  and  my  delight,  God  won't  forget  thee  ! 


IN   THE   BARBARY   STATES.  117 

JUAN. 

0  father !  mother !  whither  will  they  bear  me 
Away  from  you  ? 

MOTHER. 

Permit  me,  worthy  Signor, 
To  speak  a  moment  in  my  infant's  ear. 
Grant  me  this  small  contentment ;  very  soon 

1  shall  know  nought  but  grief. 

MERCHANT. 
What  you  would  say, 
Say  now  ;  to-night  is  the  last  time. 

MOTHER. 
To-night 
Is  the  first  time  my  heart  e'er  felt  such  grief. 

JUAN. 

Pray  keep  me  with  you,  mother,  for  I  know  not 
Whither  he'd  carry  me. 

MOTHER. 
Alas,  poor  child  ! 

Fortune  forsook  thee  even  at  thy  birth. 
The  heavens  are  overcast,  the  elements 
Are  turbid,  and  the  very  sea  and  winds 
Are  all  combined  against  me.     Thou,  my  child, 
Know'st  not  the  dark  misfortunes  into  which 
Thou  art  so  early  plunged,  but  happily 
Lackest  the  power  to  comprehend  thy  fate. 
What  I  would  crave  of  thee,  my  life,  since  I 


118  WHITE  SLAVERY 

Must  never  more  be  blessed  with  seeing  thee, 

Is  that  thou  never,  never  wilt  forget 

To  say,  as  thou  wert  wont,  thy  Ave  Mary  ; 

For  that  bright  queen  of  goodness,  grace,  and  virtue 

Can  loosen  all  thy  bonds  and  give  thee  freedom. 

AYDAR. 

Behold  the  wicked  Christian,  how  she  counsels 
Her  innocent  child !     You  wish,  then,  that  your  child 
Should,  like  yourself,  continue  still  in  error. 

JUAN. 

0  mother,  mother,  may  I  not  remain  ? 

And  must  these  Moors,  then,  carry  me  away  ? 

MOTHER. 
With  thee,  my  child,  they  rob  me  of  my  treasures. 

JUAN. 
0, 1  am  much  afraid ! 

MOTHER. 
JTis  I,  my  child, 

Who  ought  to  fear  at  seeing  thee  depart. 
Thou  wilt  forget  thy  God,  me,  and  thyself. 
What  else  can  I  expect  from  thee,  abandoned 
At  such  a  tender  age,  amongst  a  people 
Full  of  deceit  and  all  iniquity  ? 

CRIER. 

Silence,  you  villanous  woman!  if  you  would  not 
Have  your  head  pay  for  what  your  tongue  has  done. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  119 

From  this  scene  we  gladly  avert  the  counte- 
nance, while,  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts,  we 
send  our  sympathies  to  the  unhappy  sufferers. 
Fain  would  we  avert  their  fate ;  fain  would  we 
destroy  the  system  of  slavery,  that  has  made  them 
wretched  and  their  masters  cruel.  And  yet  we 
would  not  judge  with  harshness  an  Algerine  slave 
owner.  He  has  been  reared  in  a  religion  of  sla- 
very ;  he  has  learned  to  regard  Christians,  "  guilty 
of  a  skin  not  colored  like  his  own,"  as  lawful  prey  ; 
and  has  found  sanctions  for  his  conduct  in  the 
injunctions  of  the  Koran,  in  the  custom  of  his 
country,  and  in  the  instinctive  dictates  of  an  ima- 
gined self-interest.  It  is,  then,  the  "  peculiar  insti- 
tution "  which  we  are  aroused  to  execrate,  rather 
than  the  Algerine  slave  masters,  who  glory  in  its 
influence,  and, 

so  perfect  is  their  misery, 
Not  once  perceive  their  foul  disfigurement, 
But  boast  themselves  more  comely  than  before. 

But  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  sufferings 
of  the  white  slaves  were  not  often  greater  than  is 
the  natural  incident  of  slavery.  There  is  an  im- 
portant authority  which  presents  this  point  in  an 
interesting  light.  It  is  that  of  General  Eaton,  for 
some  time  consul  of  the  United  States  at  Tunis, 
and  whose  name  is  not  without  note  in  the  painful 
annals  of  war.  In  a  letter  to  his  wife,  dated  at 
Tunis,  April  6,  1799,  and  written  amidst  oppor- 
tunities of  observation  such  as  few  have  enjoyed, 


120  WHITE  SLAVERY 

he  briefly  describes  the  condition  of  this  unhappy 
class,  illustrating  it  by  a  comparison  less  flattering 
to  our  country  than  to  Barbary.  "  Many  of  the 
Christian  slaves,"  he  says,  "have  died  of  grief, 
and  the  others  linger  out  a  life  less  tolerable  than 
death.  Alas !  remorse  seizes  my  whole  soul,  when 
I  reflect  that  this  is,  indeed,  a  copy  of  the  very 
barbarity  which  my  eyes  have  seen  in  my  own  na- 
tive country.  And  yet  we  boast  of  liberty  and 
national  justice.  How  frequently  have  I  seen  in 
the  Southern  States  of  our  own  country  weeping 
mothers  leading  guiltless  infants  to  the  sales  with 
as  deep  anguish  as  if  they  led  them  to  the  slaugh- 
ter, and  yet  felt  my  bosom  tranquil  in  the  view 
of  these  aggressions  upon  defenceless  humanity  ! 
But  when  I  see  the  same  enormities  practised  upon 
beings  whose  complexion  and  blood  claim  kindred 
with  my  own,  I  curse  the  perpetrators,  and  weep 
over  the  wretched  victims  of  their  rapacity.  In- 
deed, truth  and  justice  demand  from  me  t/ie  confession 
that  the  Christian  slaves  among  the  barbarians  of  Af- 
rica are  treated  with  more  humanity  than  the  Af- 
rican slaves  among  the  professing  Christians  of  civil- 
ized America;  and  yet  here  sensibility  bleeds  at 
every  pore  for  the  wretches  whom  fate  has  doomed 
to  slavery." * 

Such  testimony  would  seem  to  furnish  a  decisive 
standard  or  measure  of  comparison  by  which  to 


1  Eaton's  Life,  p.  145. 


IN  THE   BAEBARY  STATES.  121 

determine  the  character  of  White  Slavery  in  the 
Barbary  States.  But  there  are  other  considera- 
tions and  authorities.  One  of  these  is  the  influ- 
ence of  the  religion  of  these  barbarians.  Travel- 
lers remark  the  generally  kind  treatment  be- 
stowed by  Mohammedans  upon  slaves.1  The  lash 
rarely,  if  ever,  lacerates  the  back  of  the  female  ; 
the  knife  or  branding  iron  is  not  employed  upon 
any  human  being  to  mark  him  as  the  property  of 
his  fellow-man.  Nor  is  the  slave  doomed,  as  in 
other  countries,  where  the  Christian  religion  is 
professed,  to  unconditional  and  perpetual  service, 
without  prospect  of  redemption.  Hope,  the  last 
friend  of  misfortune,  may  brighten  his  captivity. 
He  is  not  so  walled  around  by  inhuman  institu- 
tions as  to  be  inaccessible  to  freedom.  "  And  unto 
such  of  your  slaves/7  says  the  Koran,  in  words 
worthy  of  adoption  in  the  legislation  of  Christian 
countries,  "  as  desire  a  written  instrument,  allow- 
ing them  to  redeem  themselves  on  paying  a  certain 
sum,  write  one,  if  ye  know  good  in  them,  and  give 
them  of  the  riches  of  God,  which  he  hath  given 
you."  2  Thus  from  the  Koran,  which  ordains  sla- 


1  Wilson's  Travels,  p.  93 ;  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  403 ; 
Noah's  Travels,  p.  302 ;  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xv.  p.  168 ;  Shaler's 
Sketches  of  Algiers,  p.  77- 

2  Sale's  Koran,  chap.  24,  vol.  ii.  p.  194.    The  right  of  redemption 
was  recognized  by  the  Gentoo  laws.    Halhed's  Code,  cap.  8,  §  1,  2. 
It  was  unknown  in  the  British  West  Indies  while  slavery  existed 
there.    Stephens  on  West  India  Slavery,  vol.  ii.  pp.  378-384.    It  is 
also  unknown  in  the  Slave  States  of  our  country. 


122  WHITE  SLAVERY 

very,  come  lessons  of  benignity  to  the  slave  ;  and 
one  of  the  most  touching  stories  in  Mohammedan- 
ism is  of  the  generosity  of  Ali,  the  companion  of 
the  Prophet,  who,  after  fasting  for  three  days, 
gave  his  whole  provision  to  a  captive  not  more 
famished  than  himself.1 

Such  precepts  and  examples  doubtless  had  their 
influence  in  Algiers.  It  is  evident,  from  the  his- 
tory of  the  country,  that  the  prejudice  of  race  did 
not  so  far  prevail  as  to  stamp  upon  the  slaves  and 
their  descendants  any  indelible  mark  of  exclusion 
from  power  and  influence.  It  often  happened  that 
they  arrived  at  eminent  posts  in  the  state.  The 
seat  of  the  Deys,  more  than  once,  was  filled  by 
humble  Christian  captives,  who  had  tugged  for 
years  at  the  oar.2 

Nor  do  we  feel,  from  the  narratives  of  captives 
and  of  travellers,  that  the  condition  of  the  Chris- 
tian slave  was  rigorous  beyond  the  ordinary  lot 
of  slavery.  "  The  Captive's  Story  "  in  Don  Quix- 
ote fails  to  impress  the  reader  with  any  peculiar 
horror  of  the  life  from  which  he  had  escaped.  It 


1  Sales's  Koran,  vol.  ii.  p.  474,  note. 

2  Haedo,  Historia  de  Argel,  p.  122 ;  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xv. 
pp.  169,  172 ;  Shaler's  Sketches  of  Algiers,  p.  77 ;  Short  Account  of 
Algiers,  pp.  22,  25.    It  seems  to  have  been  supposed,  that,  according 
to  the  Koran,  the  condition  of  slavery  ceased  when  the  party  became 
a  Mussulman.     Penny  Cyclopaedia,  art.  Slavery ;  Noah's  Travels, 
p.  302 ;  Shaler's  Sketches,  p.  69.    In  point  of  fact,  freedom  generally 
followed  conversion ;  but  I  do  not  find  any  injunction  on  the  subject 
in  the  Koran. 


IN  THE  BARBAEY  STATES.  123 

is  often  said  that  the  sufferings  of  Cervantes  were 
among  the  most  severe  which  even  Algiers  could 
inflict.1  But  they  did  not  repress  the  gayety  of  his 
temper  ;  and  we  learn  that  in  the  building  where 
he  was  confined  there  was  a  chapel  or  oratory,  in 
which  mass  was  celebrated,  the  sacrament  admin- 
istered, and  sermons  regularly  preached  by  captive 
priests.2  Nor  was  this  all.  The  pleasures  of  the 
theatre  were  enjoyed  by  these  slaves  ;  and  the 
farces  of  Lope  de  Kueda,  a  favorite  Spanish 
dramatist  of  the  time,  served,  in  actual  represen- 
tation, to  cheer  this  house  of  bondage.3 
•  The  experience  of  the  devoted  Portuguese  ec- 
clesiastic, Father  Thomas,  illustrates  this  lot.  A 
slave  in  Morocco,  he  was  able  to  minister  to  his 
fellow-slaves,  and  to  compose  a  work  on  the  Pas- 
sion of  Jesus  Christ,  which  has  been  admired  for 
its  unction,  and  translated  into  various  tongues. 
At  last  liberated  through  the  intervention  of  the 
Portuguese  ambassador,  he  chose  to  remain  behind, 
notwithstanding  the  solicitations  of  relatives  at 
home,  that  he  might  continue  to  instruct  and  con- 
sole the  unhappy  men,  his  late  companions  in 
bonds.4 


1  De  lospeores  yue  en  Argel  auia.    Haedo,  Historia  de  Argel,  p. 
85 ;  Navarrete,  Vida  de  Cervantes,  p.  361. 

2  Roscoe's  Life  of  Cervantes,  p.  303. 

3  Bonos  de  Argel. 

4  Biographie   Universelle,  art.  Thomas  de  Jesus  ;  Digby's  Board 
Stone  of  Honor,  Tancredus,  §  9,  p.  181. 


124 


WHITE  SLAVERY 


Even  the  story  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  so  bru- 
tally sold  in  the  public  square,  is  not  without  its 
gleams  of  light.  He  was  bought  by  a  fisherman, 
who  was  soon  constrained  to  get  rid  of  him,  "  hav- 
ing nothing  so  contrary  except  the  sea."  He  then 
passed  into  the  hands  of  an  old  man,  whom  he 
pleasantly  describes  as  a  chemical  doctor,  a  sover- 
eign maker  of  quintessences,  very  humane  and  kind, 
who  had  labored  for  the  space  of  fifty  years  in 
search  of  the  philosopher's  stone.  "  He  loved  me 
much,"/says  the  fugitive  slave,  "and  pleased  him- 
self by  discoursing  to  me  of  alchemy,  and  then  of 

his  religion,  to . 
which  he  made 
every  effort 
to  draw  me, 
promising  me 
riches  and  all 
his  wisdom." 
On  the  death 
Of  this  master, 
he  passed  to  a 
nephew,  by  whom  he  was  sold  to  still  another 
person,  a  renegade  from  Nice,  who  took  him  to 
the  mountains,  where  the  country  was  extremely 
hot  and  desert.  A  Turkish  wife  of  the  renegade 
becoming  interested  in  him,  and  curious  to  know 
his  manner  of  life  at  home,  visited  him  daily  at  his 
work  in  the  fields,  and  listened  with  delight  to 
the  slave,  away  from  his  country  and  the  churches 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  125 

of  his  religion,  as  he  sang  the  psalm  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  in  a  foreign  land  :  "  By  the  rivers 
of  Babylon  there  we  sat  down ;  yea,  we  wept 
when  we  remembered  Zion." l 

The  kindness  of  the  slave  master  often  appears. 
The  English  merchant  Abraham  Brown,  whose 
sale  at  Sallee  has  been  already  described,  makes 
known,  in  his  memoirs,  that,  after  he  had  been  car- 
ried to  the  house  of  his  master,  his  wounds  were 
tenderly  washed  and  dressed  by  his  master's  wife, 
and  "  indeed  the  whole  family  gave  him  comforta- 
ble words."  He  was  furnished  with  a  mat  to  lie 
on,  "  and  some  three  or  four  days  after  provided 
with  a  shirt,  such  a  one  as  it  was,  a  pair  of  shoes, 
and  an  old  doublet."  His  servile  toils  troubled 
him  less  than  "being  commanded  by  a  negro 
man,  who  had  been  a  long  time  in  his  patron's 
house  a  freeman,  at  whose  beck  and  command  he 
was  obliged  to  be  obedient  for  the  doing  of  the 
least  about  the  house  or  mill ; "  and  he  concludes 
his  lament  on  this  degradation  as  follows  :  "  Thus 
I,  who  had  commanded  many  men  in  several  parts 
of  the  world,  must  now  be  commanded  by  a  negro, 
who,  with  his  two  countrywomen  in  the  house, 
scorned  to  drink  out  of  the  water  pot  I  drank  of, 
whereby  I  was  despised  of  the  despised  people  of 
the  world."  2 

At  a  later  day  we  are  furnished  with  another 

1  Biographie  Universelle,  art.  Vincent  de  Paul. 

2  MS.  Memoirs. 


126  WHITE   SLAVERY 

authentic  picture.  Captain  Braithwaite,  who  ac- 
companied the  British  minister  to  Morocco  in  1727, 
in  order  to  procure  the  liberation  of  the  British 
captives,  after  describing  their  comfortable  con- 
dition, adds,  "  I  am  sure  we  saw  several  captives 
who  lived  much  better  in  Barbary  than  ever  they 
did  in  their  own  country.  Whatever  money  in 
charity  was  sent  them  by  their  friends  in  Europe 
was  their  own,  unless  they  defrauded  one  another, 
which  has  happened  much  oftener  than  by  the 
Moors.  Several  of  them  are  rich,  and  many  have 
carried  considerable  sums  out  of  the  country,  to 
the  truth  of  which  we  are  all  witnesses.  Several 
captives  keep  their  mules,  and  some  their  servants  ; 
and  yet  this  is  called  insupportable  slavery  among 
Turks  and  Moors.  But  we  found  this,  as  well  as 
many  other  things  in  this  country,  strangely  mis- 
represented." l 

These  statements  —  which,  to  those  who  do  not 
place  freedom  above  all  price,  may  seem,  at  first 
view,  to  take  the  sting  even  from  slavery — are 
not  without  support  from  other  sources.  Colonel 
Keatinge,  who,  as  a  member  of  a  diplomatic  mis- 
sion from  England,  visited  Morocco  in  1785,  says 
of  this  evil  there,  that  "  it  is  very  slightly  inflicted, 
and  as  to  any  labor  undergone,  it  does  not  de- 
serve the  name;"2  while  Mr.  Leinpriere,  who 

1  Braithwaite's  Revolutions  in  Morocco,  p.  353. 

2  Keatinge's  Travels,  p.  250 ;  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xv.  p.  146. 
See  also  Chenier's  Present  State  of  Morocco,  vol.  i.  p.  192 ;  ii.  p. 


IN  THE   BARBARY   STATES.  127 

was  in  the  same  country  not  long  afterwards, 
adds,  "  To  the  disgrace  of  Europe,  the  Moors 
treat  their  slaves  with  humanity." 1  In  Tripoli, 
we  are  told,  by  a  person  for  ten  years  a  resident, 
that  the  same  gentleness  prevailed.  "  It  is  a  great 
alleviation  to  our  feelings,"  says  the  writer,  speak- 
ing of  the  slaves,  "  to  see  them  easy  and  well 
dressed,  and,  so  far  from  wearing  chains,  as  cap- 
tives do  in  most  other  places,  they  are  perfectly 
at  liberty."2  We  have  already  seen  the  testi- 
mony of  General  Eaton  with  regard  to  slavery  in 
Tunis ;  while  Mr.  Noah,  one  of  his  successors  in 
the  consulate  of  the  United  States  at  that  place, 
says,  "  In  Tunis,  from  my  observation,  the  slaves 
are  not  severely  treated ;  they  are  very  useful, 
and  many  of  them  have  made  money."  3  And  Mr. 
Shaler,  describing  the  chief  seat  of  Christian  sla- 
very, says,  "  In  short,  there  were  slaves  who  left 
Algiers  with  regret."  4 

A  French  writer  of  more  recent  date  asserts 
with  some  vehemence,  and  with  the  authority  of 
an  eye  witness,  that  the  Christian  slaves  at  Algiers 
were  not  exposed  to  the  miseries  which  they  repre- 
sented. I  do  not  know  that  he  vindicates  their 
slavery,  but,  like  Captain  Braithwaite,  he  evident- 


1  Lempriere's  Tour,  p.  290.    See  also  pp.  3,  147, 190,  279. 

2  Narrative  of  Ten  Years'  Residence  at  Tripoli,  p.  211 

3  Noah's  Travels,  p.  368. 

4  Shaler' s  Sketches,  p.  77. 


128  WHITE  SLAVERY 

ly  regards  many  of  them  as  better  off  than  they 
would  be  at  home.  According  to  him,  they  were 
well  clad  and  well  fed,  much  better  than  the  free 
Christians  there.  The  youngest  and  most  comely 
were  taken  as  pages  by  the  Dey.  Others  were 
employed  in  the  barracks  ;  others  in  the  galleys  ; 
but  even  here  there  was  a  chapel,  as  in  the  time  of 
Cervantes,  for  the  free  exercise  of  the  Christian 
religion.  Those  who  happened  to  be  artisans,  as 
carpenters,  locksmiths,  and  calkers,  were  let  to 
the  owners  of  vessels.  Others  were  employed  on 
the  public  works ;  while  others  still  were  allowed 
the  privilege  of  keeping  a  shop,  in  which  their 
profits  were  sometimes  so  large  as  to  enable  them 
at  the  end  of  a  year  to  purchase  their  ransom. 
But  these  were  often  known  to  become  indifferent 
to  freedom,  and  to  prefer  Algiers  to  their  own 
country.  The  slaves  of  private  persons  were 
sometimes  employed  in  the  family  of  their  master, 
where  their  treatment  necessarily  depended  much 
upon  his  character.  If  he  were  gentle  and  hu- 
mane, their  lot  was  fortunate  ;  they  were  regard- 
ed as  children  of  the  house.  If  he  were  harsh 
and  selfish,  then  the  iron  of  slavery  did,  indeed, 
enter  their  souls.  Many  were  bought  to  be  sold 
again  for  profit  into  distant  parts  of  the  country, 
where  they  were  doomed  to  exhausting  labor  ;  in 
which  event  their  condition  was  most  grievous. 
But  special  care  was  bestowed  upon  all  who 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  129 

became  ill  —  not  so  much,  it  is  admitted,  from  hu- 
manity as  through  fear  of  losing  them.1 

But,  whatever  deductions  may  be  made  from 
the  familiar  stories  of  White  Slavery  in  the  Bar- 
bary  States,  —  admitting  that  it  was  mitigated  by 
the  genial  influence  of  Mohammedanism,  —  that 
the  captives  were  well  clad  and  well  fed,  much 
better  than  the  free  Christians  there, — that  they 
were  allowed  opportunities  of  Christian  worship, 
—  that  they  were  often  treated  with  lenity  and 
affectionate  care,  —  that  they  were  sometimes  ad- 
vanced to  posts  of  responsibility  and  honor, — 
and  that  they  were  known,  in  their  contentment 
or  stolidity,  to  become  indifferent  to  freedom,  — 
still  the  institution  or  custom  is  hardly  less  hate- 
ful in  our  eyes.  Slavery  in  all  its  forms,  even 
under  the  mildest  influences,  is  a  wrong  and  a 
curse.  No  accidental  gentleness  of  the  master 
can  make  it  otherwise.  Against  it  reason,  expe- 
rience, the  heart  of  man,  all  cry  out.  "  Disguise 
thyself  as  thou  wilt,  still,  Slavery !  thou  art  a  bit- 
ter draught!  and  though  thousands  in  all  ages 
have  been  made  to  drink  of  thee,  thou  art  no  less 
bitter  on  that  account."  Algerine  Slavery  was  a 
violation  of  the  law  of  nature  and  of  God.  It 
was  a  usurpation  of  rights  not  granted  to  man. 


1  Histoire  cFAlger :  Description  de  ce  Royaume,  etc.,  de  ses  Forces 
de  Terre  et  de  Mer,  Mosurs  et  Costumes  des  Hdbitans,  des  Mores,  des 
Arabes,  des  Juifs,  des  Chretiens,  de  ses  Lois,  etcs.  (Paris,  1830,) 
chap.  27. 


130  WHITE  SLAVERY 

O  execrable  son,  so  to  aspire 
Above  his  brethren,  to  himself  assuming 
Authority  usurped,  from  God  not  given  ! 
He  gave  us  only  over  beast,  fish,  fowl, 
Dominion  absolute ;  that  right  we  hold 
By  his  donation ;  but  man  over  men 
He  made  not  lord,  such  title  to  himself 
Reserving,  human  left  from  human  free.1 

Such  a  relation,  in  defiance  of  God,  could  not  fail 
to  accumulate  disastrous  consequences  upon  all  in 
any  way  parties  to  it ;  for  injustice  and  wrong  are 
fatal  alike  to  the  doer  and  the  sufferer.  It  is 
notorious  that,  in  Algiers,  it  exerted  a  most  per- 
nicious influence  on  master  as  well  as  slave.  The 
slave  was  crushed  and  degraded,  his  intelligence 
abased,  even  his  love  of  freedom  extinguished. 
The  master,  accustomed  from  childhood  to  revolt- 
ing inequalities  of  condition,  was  exalted  into  a 
mood  of  unconscious  arrogance  and  self-confi- 
dence, inconsistent  with  the  virtues  of  a  pure  and 
upright  character.  Unlimited  power  is  apt  to 
stretch  towards  license  ;  and  the  wives  and  daugh- 
ters of  Christian  slaves  were  often  pressed  to  be 
the  concubines  of  their  Algerine  masters.2 

1  Paradise  Lost,  book  xii.  64-71. 

2  Noah's    Travels,  p.  248,  253;    Quarterly  Review,  voj.  xv.  p. 
168.    Among  the  concubines  of  a  prince  of  Morocco  were  two  slaves 
of  the  age  of  fifteen,  one  of  English,  and  the  other  of  French  ex- 
traction.   Lempriere's  Tour,  p.  147.    There  is  an  account  of  the  fate 
of  "  one  Mrs.  Shaw,  an  Irish  woman,"  in  words  hardly  polite  enough 
to  be  quoted.    She  was  swept  into  the  harem  of  Muley  Ishmael, 
who  "  forced  her  to  turn  Moor ;  "  "  but  soon  after,  having  taken  a 
dislike  to  her,  he  gave  her  to  a  soldier."  —  Braithwaite's  Morocco, 
p.  191. 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  131 

It  is  well,  then,  that  it  has  passed  away !  The 
Barbary  States  seem  less  barbarous,  when  we  no 
longer  discern  this  cruel  oppression ! 

But  the  story  of  slavery  there  is  not  yet  all 
told.  While  the  Barbary  States  received  white 
slaves  by  sea,  stolen  by  corsairs,  they  also,  from 
time  immemorial,  imported  black  slaves  from  the 
south.  Over  the  vast,  illimitable  sea  of  sand,  in 
which  is  absorbed  their  southern  border,  —  trav- 
ersed by  camels,  those  "  ships  of  the  desert," — 


were  brought  those  unfortunate  beings,  as  mer- 
chandise, with  gold  dust  and  ivory,  doomed  often 
to  insufferable  torments,  while  cruel  thirst  parched 
the  lips,  and  tears  vainly  moistened  the  eyes. 
They  also  were  ravished  from  their  homes,  and, 
like  their  white  brethren  from  the  north,  com- 
pelled to  taste  of  slavery.  In  numbers  they  have 
far  surpassed  their  Christian  peers.  But  for  long 
years  no  pen  or  voice  pleaded  their  cause ;  nor 


132  WHITE  SLAVERY 

did  the  Christian  nations  —  professing  a  religion 
which  teaches  universal  humanity,  without  respect 
of  persons,  and  sends  the  precious  sympathies  of 
neighborhood  to  all  who  suffer,  even  at  the  farthest 
pole  —  ever  interfere  in  any  way  in  their  behalf. 
The  navy  of  Great  Britain,  by  the  throats  of  their 
artillery,  argued  the  freedom  of  all  fettvw-Chris- 
tians,  without  distinction  of  nation;  but  they 
heeded  not  the  slavery  of  other  brethren  in  bonds 
—  Mohammedans  or  idolaters,  children  of  the 
same  Father  in  heaven.  Lord  Exmouth  did  but 
half  his  work.  In  confining  the  stipulation  to  the 
abolition  of  Christian  slavery  only,  this  Aboli- 
tionist made  a  discrimination,  which,  whether 
founded  on  religion  or  color,  was  selfish  and  un- 
christian. Here,  again,  was  the  same  inconsis- 
tency which  darkened  the  conduct  of  Charles  the 
Fifth,  and  has  constantly  recurred  throughout  the 
history  of  this  outrage.  Forgetful  of  the  Brother- 
hood of  the  Race,  Christian  powers  have  deemed 
the  slavery  of  blacks  just  and  proper,  while  the 
slavery  of  whites  has  been  branded  as  unjust  and 
sinful. 

As  the  British  fleet  sailed  proudly  from  the  har- 
bor of  Algiers,  bearing  its  emancipated  white 
slaves,  and  the  express  stipulation,  that  Christian 
slavery  was  abolished  there  forever,  it  left  behind 
in  bondage  large  numbers  of  blacks,  distributed 
throughout  all  the  Barbary  States.  Neglected 
thus  by  exclusive  and  unchristian  Christendom,  it 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES.  133 

is  pleasant  to  know  that  their  lot  is  not  always 
unhappy.  In  Morocco,  negroes  are  still  detained 
as  slaves ;  but  the  prejudice  of  color  seems  not  to 
prevail  there.  They  have  been  called  "  the  grand 
cavaliers  of  this  part  of  Barbary." l  They  often 
become  the  chief  magistrates  and  rulers  of  cities.2 
They  constituted  the  body  guard  of  several  of  the 
emperors,  and,  on  one  occasion  at  least,  exercised 
the  prerogative  of  the  Praetorian  cohorts,  in  de- 
throning their  master.3  If  negro  slavery  still 
exists  in  this  state,  it  has  little  of  the  degradation 
connected  with  it  elsewhere.  Into  Algiers  Prance 
has  already  carried  the  benign  principle  of  law  — 
earlier  recognized  by  her  than  by  the  English 
courts4 — which  secures  freedom  to  all  beneath 
its  influence.  And  now  we  are  cheered  anew  by 
the  glad  tidings  recently  received,  that  the  Bey  of 
Tunis,  "  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  to  distinguish 
man  from  the  brute  creation,"  has  decreed  the 


1  Braithwaite's  Morocco,  p.  350.    See  also  Quarterly  Review,  vol. 
xv.  p.  168. 

2  Braithwaite,  p.  222. 

3  Ibid.  p.  381. 

4  Somersett's  case,  first  declaring  this  principle,  was  decided  in 
1772.    M.  Schoell  says,  that  "  this  fine  maxim  has  always  obtained  " 
in  France.  —  Hisfoire  Abrfyte  des  Traites  de  Paixt  torn.  xi.  p.  178. 
By  the  royal  ordinance  1318,  it  was  declared,  that  "  all  men  are 
born  free  (francs)  by  nature  ;  and  that  the  kingdom  of  the  French 
(Francs)  should  be  so  in  reality  as  in  name."     But  this  "fine 
maxim  "  was  not  recognized  in  France  so  completely  as  M.  SchoeU 
asserts.      See  Encyclopedic,  (de  Diderot  et  de  D'Alembert,)  art. 
Esclavage. 


134  WHITE  SLAVERY 

total  abolition  of  human  slavery  throughout  his 
dominions. 

Let  us,  then,  with  hope  and  confidence,  turn  to 
the  Barbary  States!  The  virtues  and  charities 
do  not  come  singly.  Among  them  is  a  common 
bond,  stronger  than  that  of  science  or  knowledge. 
Let  one  find  admission,  and  a  goodly  troop  will 
follow.  Nor  is  it  unreasonable  to  anticipate  other 
improvements  in  states  which  have  renounced  a 
long-cherished  system  of  White  Slavery,  while 
they  have  done  much  to  abolish  or  mitigate  the 
slavery  of  others  not  white,  and  to  overcome  the 
inhuman  prejudice  of  color.  The  Christian  na- 
tions of  Europe  first  declared,  and  practically 
enforced,  within  their  own  European  dominions, 
the  vital  truth  of  freedom,  that  man  cannot  hold 
property  in  his  brother  man.  Algiers  and  Tunis, 
like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  have  been  turned  from  the 
path  of  persecution,  and  now  receive  the  same 
faith.  Algiers  and  Tunis  now  help  to  plead  the 
cause  of  Freedom.  Such  a  cause  is  in  sacred  fel- 
lowship with  all  those  principles  which  promote 
the  Progress  of  Man.  And  who  can  tell  that  this 
despised  portion  of  the  globe  is  not  destined  to 
yet  another  restoration  ?  It  was  here  in  Northern 
Africa  that  civilization  was  first  nursed,  that 
commerce  early  spread  her  white  wings,  that 
Christianity  was  taught  by  the  honeyed  lips  of 
Augustine.  All  these  are  again  returning  to  their 
ancient  home.  Civilization,  commerce,  and  Chris- 


IN  THE  BARBARY  STATES. 


135 


tianity  once  more  shed  their  benignant  influences 
upon  the  land  to  which  they  have  long  been 
strangers.  A  new  health  and  vigor  now  animate 
its  exertions.  Like  its  own  giant  Antaeus, — 
whose  tomb  is  placed  by  tradition  among  the 
hillsides  of  Algiers,  —  it  has  been  often  felled 
to  the  earth,  but  it  now  rises  with  renewed 
strength,  to  gain  yet  higher  victories. 


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